The civil servants’ plight

For many civil servants, especially those in the early years of their careers, issue remains inadequate compensation

Imagine a job where you are underpaid, often pestered by anti-corruption watchdogs, uncertain about how long your current role is going to last, and anything you decide can be challenged in a court of law. That’s the plight of a civil servant today.

Last week I wrote about how civil service reforms mean different things for different people. It is critical to understand a civil servant’s perspective about civil service reforms, before embarking on any serious reform effort.

For many civil servants, especially those in the early years of their careers, the core issue remains inadequate compensation. Contrary to common belief, the unlimited perks of the bureaucracy are enjoyed only by a selected few, while most find it hard even to make both ends meet in their meagre salaries.

Over the last many years, the civil servants’ salaries have been declining in real terms. The wage compression ratio — the ratio of grade 22 salary to grade 1 salary — that hovered around 25 in 1970s, has gone down to around 9. In the private sector, the compression ratio can even exceed 100, reflecting the need for specialised skills at the top and abundance of supply and low level of skills required at the bottom.

But more than comparing with the private sector, the civil servants believe that they at least deserve a salary that is commensurate with a decent lifestyle.

Another nightmare for civil servants is the recent spell of excessive accountability. Civil servants feel that they are unduly harassed by the National Accountability Bureau. They have stopped showing initiative, fearing that their motive may be called into question. Instead they like to hide behind Rules of Business to avoid taking any decisions. Mr Suleman Ghani, the 70-year-old ex-federal secretary known as a very dynamic civil servant of his times, is a case in point. He was arrested by NAB a few months ago on flimsy grounds. Eventually he came out clean and the case fizzled out. But the humiliation remained and served as a lesson for younger civil servants for what could lie ahead for them.

Then comes judicial scrutiny. The civil servants are called into courts every day on one pretext or the other, where they often have to face humiliation and embarrassment. A former chairman CDA told me that he had to appear 40 times before the Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court during 61 days of his posting. How then was he supposed to work?

Such judicial scrutiny however has failed to protect the rights of civil servants, who find themselves helpless in the wake of constant political meddling and the threat of transfer always hanging over their heads.

The decision on the Anita Turab case set a few sound principles including protecting reasonable tenures, reinforcing that civil servants should not obey illegal orders, and discouraging posting officers on special duty, which is a frequently used tool to penalise civil servants. None of these principles however are practised.

Bureaucrats are transferred on whims with no regard to tenure. Since January 2018, Punjab has witnessed seven inspectors general of police, with an average tenure of less than six months each. What happened with IG Sindh recently leaves little space for civil servants not to obey illegal orders. And the case of Bashir Memon, the former director general of FIA, who was made an OSD in the most unceremonious manner is a reminder that there has been no change in policy on OSDs.

The civil servants feel that unless civil service reforms can fix these issues, nothing is likely to improve. But that remains a civil servant’s perspective. What the world thinks about civil service is an entirely different perspective, which is a story for another day.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2020.

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