Bureaucracy yields to political influences

After the 18th Amendment, the provinces should be autonomous in making their own bureaucratic decisions

LAHORE:

A toddler learning to walk would eagerly cling on to their parents’ hand in the hopes of saving themselves from landing flat on their face. However, when this same behavior of dependency starts manifesting between docile bureaucrats and paternalistic politicians, each and every decision of the state institutions would be spoon-fed by the power holders.

According to Salman Abid, Visiting Professor and Public Policy Advisor at the University of Punjab, a centralized governance model was followed in Punjab in 2024. “Most of the issues, especially the posting and appointment of bureaucrats, were being managed by the federal government as per its will and intention. Although after the 18th Amendment, the provinces should be autonomous in making their own decisions, it seems that the administrative power has been taken away largely due to doubts over the mandate of the current government," opined Abid.

Abid believed that since Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been the Chief Minister of Punjab several times, the bureaucracy habitually turned to him while making big decisions hence allowing him to exert his influence in Punjab.

“The current system will neither ensure transparency nor improve governance, but it will only create more distortion in administrative and governance matters. It is better to run the system in the same way as it is being run in other provinces but it seems that the federation has established its supremacy by keeping the affairs of Punjab under its control,” opined Abid.

Although Punjab has a policy specifying that officers holding one to two key posts have to be reposted every year, this record was broken in 2024. As per details obtained by the Express Tribune, the bureaucratic set-up formed during the caretaker government’s tenure, whose only job was to conduct elections, comprised almost three quarters of the civil administration, giving the impression that the new government was a mere continuation of the caretaker regime, with no vision or policy of its own.

Out of more than 5,000 officers and bureaucrats in Punjab, only 24 per cent were changed, out of which 15 per cent only had their seat changed while nine per cent were transferred. Therefore, in the history of the province, this is the first time that the new government has failed to replace the officials of the bureaucracy including in key positions, IG Punjab Police, CCPO Lahore and the respective Commissioners of Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur.

Furthermore, the "tsunami" of transfers in the bureaucracy based on summaries continued vigorously until the last week of December. Apart from this, gender discrimination against women emerged as a major theme plaguing the bureaucracy since female officers were transferred over subjective reasons while the quota allocated for them was also not followed.

Rabia Bajwa, Vice President of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, felt that the current government had not been able to devise a single policy during the past year, which can be termed ‘women-friendly’. "Appointing only a few influential women to advisory positions is a cosmetic move. Until or unless, the government brings policies to empower women from ordinary families, no real change can be expected. When a woman takes charge of the government, it becomes imperative for her to be cognizant of complaints of gender discrimination and to ensure that women's issues are addressed according to the law,” asserted Bajwa.

“Women should have been given equal opportunities for employment in the field. Appointing a woman as a District Police Officer was supposed to improve the policing process. The government faced many difficulties last year to improve governance in the province for which an open-door policy was also introduced,” claimed Former IG Punjab Police Ahmed Naseem.

Provincial Information Minister Uzma Bukhari informed that the Punjab Chief Minister had introduced 86 public relief projects within a few months of taking charge. “The CM has devised criteria to check the performance of officers,” said Bukhari.