Leadership of the public service commissions

PSC requires dynamic, proactive leadership, with high degree of seniority, knowledge, experience of the system

Pakistan’s civil service traces its roots back to more than a hundred years ago, when the UK, which then wielded and exercised political sovereignty over the subcontinent, including present-day Pakistan, installed a civil service system patterned after the one operating in the UK itself. Though the Brits reformed their own civil service system comprehensively in 1962, we continued with the old system. As the Brits wanted to cultivate an administrative culture based on the ethos of professionalism and competence, they established an entity entrusted with the protection and safeguard of meritocracy in the subcontinent’s bureaucracy, known as the Public Service Commission, on October 1, 1926.

Following the end of British rule, it was succeeded by the Pakistan Public Service Commission in 1947. While the 1956 and 1962 constitutions protected the appointment, tenure, functions and powers of the chairman and members of the Commission, the 1973 Constitution made a departure by prescribing these through a law of parliament. The law was rescinded and amended at will by the executive, more for personal reasons than for any principles, compromising the independence and impartiality of the Commission.

Pertinent to the Federal Public Service Commission, three cardinal principles deserve mention: first, it is responsible for a merit-based recruitment to the All-Pakistan services, civil services of the federation and civil posts in connection with the affairs of the federation in BPS-16 and above or equivalent; second, it is responsible for advising the president on matters relating to qualification and methods of recruitment to these services, as well as the principles to be followed in making initial appointments to the services; and third, the chairman is responsible for heading the central selection board for promotions to BPS-20 and BPS-21.

Public opinion regarding the Pakistani civil service has always been unfavourable, especially so, during the last two decades. It has been perceived and stereotyped as being ineffective and mediocre. One of the reasons for such perceptions could be traced to the influences and inroads that politics has made in the civil service, particularly in the area of personnel administration. Consequently, qualification standards for selection and hiring have largely been ignored and indiscriminately trampled upon in order to give precedence to political proteges. This is still continuing with impunity.

Good governance provides the foundation for sustainable development and a strong civil service makes good governance possible through professionalism, tempered with human considerations, empowerment grounded on self-discipline, and commitment graced with creativity and innovation. True to this mission, the Commission, during the last 18 months, tendered eight policy papers to the government, proposing restructuring of the competitive examination and the promotion examination, reforming the promotion policy and the final passing out examination, and updating its functions and conduct of business rules, which were framed half a century ago, apart from strengthening internal systems of the Commission, including the general recruitment system.

Never before in the history of the Commission has such magnitude of reform work been undertaken, as has been done during the last 18 months. The Commission, in every possible way, worked with missionary zeal to build, promote and sustain the growth of strong and committed Pakistani civil servants through these reforms. In all these efforts, the Commission was inspired by our people’s aspirations for our country to stand proud and strong in the international community, with a civil service that is truly world class and globally competitive. Many more reforms are in the pipeline, including those meant for training academies and their syllabi. All this was made possible through the efforts led by those in the Commission, who have tremendous contextual knowledge of the civil service, have served in many positions of prominence and have insight regarding the system’s weaknesses.

In this backdrop, leadership of the Public Service Commissions ought to be given the highest consideration and so should its members. These are no ordinary positions. They require a dynamic and proactive leadership, with a high degree of seniority, knowledge and experience of the civil service system, which can learn from modern trends and innovations around the globe, continue the present reform process and take the independence of the Commissions and their impartiality to the next level. To substantiate this point, India had only one chairman from the military out of its 27 chairmen and none from the judiciary, while Bangladesh had none from the military or the judiciary since 1972. In contrast, Pakistan has had seven chairmen from the armed forces and three from the judiciary out of the 20 chairmen since 1947. The practices in our neighbouring countries should be a beacon of light for us.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2014.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.