System of government: Bureaucrats lobby Sharifs for plum jobs

Reception tent at Raiwind packed with supplicants.

LAHORE:

Bureaucrats are thronging the Sharif residences in Raiwind and Model Town to get jobs in the next federal and provincial governments.

Since May 12, a tent has been in place at Jati Umra, Raiwind, where senior and junior bureaucrats, independent candidates and other supplicants looking to get an audience with the next rulers of the Punjab and Pakistan begin gathering in the morning.

The scene is similar to that witnessed five years ago at the Defence residence of Shahbaz Sharif when he was planning for his term as chief minister. Some who have backing from within bureaucratic lobbies have been visiting the PML-N Central Secretariat at 180 H Model Town.

For civil servants, the Sharif brothers hold the key to various attractive jobs. Those most in demand include federal secretaries, heads of autonomous bodies, positions in various public sector enterprises, commercial counsellors or economic ministers in foreign embassies, chairman of the Capital Development Authority, establishment secretary, cabinet secretary, and posts in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Interviews with party officials and civil servants have revealed that various bureaucratic lobbies are at play seeking to get their allies in key positions. They include one group known in these circles as “the mutual praise group”, a coterie of officials skilled at singing each other’s praises. Prominent among them are Dr Tauqeer Shah and Fawad Hassan Fawad, District Management Group officers who have worked closely with Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif.



Although Shah was ostensibly the principal secretary to Shahbaz in his previous stint as chief minister, he actually spent most of his time at Raiwind with Nawaz. Shah reputedly helped engineer the Unification Bloc in the previous Punjab Assembly and was heavily involved in the election campaign, conducting surveys in constituencies across the province and advising the PML-N chief on who to award tickets to. Fawad helped Shahbaz plan development works across the Punjab. Dozens of bureaucrats have approached Shah and Fawad asking them to support their cause before the Sharifs.

Another strong lobby is named after a prominent property tycoon in Rawalpindi. It includes some 15 bureaucrats and is led by Ikhlaq Ahmed Tarar. But this second lobby has been told for the time being that they will not be awarded any top posts just yet, said party sources.

The third notable lobby consists of senior civil servants who have experience of serving under the Sharifs earlier on in their political careers and who have direct access to the brothers, though this group is small in number.

Bureaucrats who have served in embassies as commercial counsellors or economic ministers comprise the “foreign aid” lobby, one with friends abroad. A prominent example is senior bureaucrat Suleman Ghani, who served as economic minister in Belgium for five years.

Finally, the “buttering up” lobby is a more general group of officials who have been praising the Sharifs and promising to help them turn Pakistan into Eden, according to party sources. In return for being given the jobs they desire, the bureaucrats had been promising their complete obedience.

Salman Shahbaz, son of Shahbaz Sharif, and a few bureaucrats have been conducting the interviews, with occasional input from Shahbaz Sharif himself. Some names have been pencilled in for important positions. They include Raja Sikandar Sultan, Sami Saeed, Javed Aslam, Asif Nadeem, Dr Ejaz Chaudhry, Nadeem Arif and Aslam Kamboh.

The PML-N has yet to finalise the man with the right qualification for the post of finance secretary. The names shortlisted for the position so far include those with master’s degrees in botany, chemistry and English. Meanwhile, at least one with a degree in economic development from Harvard has been turned away.

A senior PML-N official said that the behaviour of the civil servants showed that the system was broken. “The bureaucrats themselves are approaching us and offering their services. There is a paradigm shift, such that they are not expected to show loyalty to the state, but to personalities,” an official said.

He said that rather than rely on the bureaucracy, the PML-N government would seek the help of experts serving as advisers to tackle the problems of debt, power shortage, unemployment, inflation and security.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.