A very uncivil service

That the civil service of Pakistan is an outdated, inefficient and shambolic structure riddled with corruption is manifestly obvious. That it is in need of root and branch reform is undeniable. It is now learned that there have been three attempts at reform and update structures and the recruitment process and they have all failed. Two parliamentary committees tried to take the steps that would see changes to the way the civil service recruits, inducts and trains its staff. They failed. Disappointment has been expressed, albeit in somewhat muted tones, and the matter of civil service reform is again on the back burner awaiting the attention of the incoming government — meaning it will be at least a year before the baton is picked up again.

Until such time as the strength can be mustered for another attempt the country remains saddled with a civil service that is largely unreformed since Independence. There have been 38 reform initiatives since 1947, none of them wholly successful. Recent attempts have floundered on the rocks of red-tapeism, internal wrangling and latterly the political upheaval in the post-Panama Papers world that has produced a churn like no other.

Efforts at reform have contained sound and solid proposals and not all of the work done by committees and individuals can be or should be rubbished. The nature of the many problems is plain enough to see and some of the reforms are not exactly rocket science. In at least one instance the work of a committee was lost when its mandate expired on April 11^th this year. It is being described as an important lost opportunity, and begs the question as to why it was that the committee did not have its mandate and ToR extended. The country now has to continue with a civil service that has its roots — and current practices — firmly in the days of colonialism. All substantive efforts at reform have failed to date, and we wonder if it is not too much to expect the next dispensation to create a truly civil service.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2018.

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