Resurrecting the past

There is not a great deal I can say about local government except that the last mayor was known to be a workaholic.


Anwer Mooraj July 29, 2011

Things have quieted down now that the matter has been referred to the court. But a fortnight ago there was a storm of protest by the MQM against the decision of the Sindh government to reintroduce a system that had been in harness since the days of the Raj which had been abolished by former president Pervez Musharraf. If Dr Johnson had been asked which of the two political arrangements would be more suited to a country like Pakistan, the old civil service with its commissioners and deputy commissioners dispensing justice, or the local government scheme headed by a mayor, he would have probably said in his customary manner “much can be said on both sides.” Much can indeed be said on both sides for there is no simple answer to this question as both structures have their share of problems. However, without going through a lot of legal gobbledygook, one thing is abundantly clear. Irrespective of which system is eventually introduced, a great deal will depend on the moral fibre, calibre, education and reputation of the functionaries and puppeteers on the politburo who pull the strings which make the marionettes dance.

The Pakistan Civil Service is a legacy of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) through which the British, aided by 50,000 Tommies, ruled over 400 million Indians. It was through these functionaries that they introduced the Rule of Law, the postal and police systems and the railways that linked Landikotal to Rangoon and made the hugeness of the subcontinent graspable. In the initial stages most of the officers in the ICS were British, but early in the twentieth century Indians started competing with the Brits and were inducted into the service. There was something about the old ICS officers that inspired awe and respect. Well paid and well looked after they were a class apart. I remember as a young boy in Bhopal my father once invited to dinner at his residence, a retired ICS officer Sir Colin Garbett, adviser to the Nawab of Bhopal. After the port, coffee and cigars, while the cranked up gramophone exuded the strains of a Xavier Cugat tango, Sir Colin spotted in my father’s book case a copy of his memoirs Friend of Friend. With characteristic modesty and humility he whipped out his fountain-pen and scribbled on the inside cover: ‘How nice to see my little book in the library of such dear friends.’ It is a book written by a man who was taught Latin and Greek in school, and who was always embarrassed by the awkwardness and fluster that his position and title evoked in others.

Regrettably, except for the clutch of Pakistani ICS officers who came over with the tide in 1947, who were and remained thorough gentlemen until they pegged down from natural causes, and a few decent, scrupulously honest, helpful officers who retired with honour, the majority of civil servants that I encountered in Pakistan after Partition behaved as if they were God’s gift to the land of the pure. One rather flamboyantly dressed officer had perfected the practice of going out for tea without coming back from lunch. Another, who was a great favourite of a  chief minister, decided to conduct his durbar from his residence..

There were two episodes that I will never forget one of which epitomised the crude incivility of some of the government officials. This might sound a little petty after so many years, but how can one draw inferences about the pitfalls of a system unless one latches on to personal experiences? The first occurred in the early 1950s when I went to the passport office to collect my first official identification. Mind you, it wasn’t easy in those days to get an appointment. The official was in a very nasty mood and had just flung onto the floor the papers of some poor weeping, cringing plebian. I had 10 seconds to decide whether to break the official in half and feed his Adam’s apple to the ancient and spiteful parrot who for the past week had been spewing invectives from his cage in my aunt’s bungalow, or to ignore the incident because my ship the St Jan of the East Asiatic Line was leaving four days later for Antwerp. I am ashamed to confess that I decided then and there that there is a great deal to be said for pragmatism. ..

The other incident occurred in the early 1960s when I was an assistant editor in Dawn under Mr Altaf Hussain and wrote a biweekly column. The British Council had invited me and my wife to spend a fortnight in England, all expenses paid. As my passport stated that my profession was journalism, I had to get a no objection certificate from the ministry of information in the newly established capital of Islamabad. I called the office, was connected to one of the joint secretaries (whose identity will remain confidential as in Pakistan one has to protect the guilty), and was asked to attend an interview the next morning. I took the early flight, reported at nine, spent eight hours in the waiting room without being called and without any refreshment and flew back to Karachi by the night flight. A fortnight later the British Council newsletter carried a photograph of a smiling, garlanded joint secretary and his smiling wife visiting a motor-car manufacturing plant in the Midlands.

There is not a great deal I can say about local government except to point out that the last mayor was known to be a workaholic, somebody that one could get to, a man who changed the face of North Karachi, who was photographed wading waist- deep in flood waters and whose efforts to turn Karachi into a mega city were praised by the Supreme Court. In short, a man of the people.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th,  2011.

COMMENTS (3)

Fahad Ali | 12 years ago | Reply

Its a matter of politics , both parties are playing their cards for their survival. The commissionerate system is now very obseleted, it would not be bring back in our current scenario,however, make some dire changes in local bodies government system provided there are so much loopholes in it.

Sajida | 12 years ago | Reply

http://www.citymayors.com/government/karachi_government.html Karachi’s federated structure has led to more responsive city government See also: http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/25/goodbye-local-government.html I think the bureaucracy can perform in the right setting. Certainly with the two mayors under the new system from unaffiliated parties, that was the case. The Commissionerate system is the wrong setting. It is like fitting a size 11 foot into a size 5 shoe! That structure is for a system for an era with a fraction of the current population and devoid of modern challenges. What its restoration reveals is that the PPP has no understanding of local governance needs. Even the East India Company head Josiah Child, who requested the first modern urban system for India be implemented for the area now known as Chennai,understood that by 1687. And Lord Ripon had far more modern sensibilities. Has young Mr Bhutto learned nothing relevant at Oxford? The actions of his party appear to indicate that.

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