Reforming the tools of governance

Most of the failures of state of Pakistan since its inception can be traced to its outdated civil service structure

The three-year plan to overhaul our colonial-era civil service, unveiled last week by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, has taken a long time coming. But as they say, better late than never. Instead of serving as the steel framework of a modern independent state, our civil service has remained glued to a moth-eaten legal system developed to rule subjects living in distant lands and that too in complete monarchical secrecy, with not an iota of transparency, thus undermining the democratic aspirations of a newly de-colonised country. Being the basic instrument of governance, most of the failures of the state of Pakistan since its inception, as well as that of our successive governments, can be traced directly to this outdated service structure. The constitutional job security cover that the civil service had enjoyed until the early 1970s had rendered the officer cadre endowed with immense discretionary powers, immune to accountability, and after they were deprived of this cover, they became even more unaccountable as they sought and got protection under what has come to be known as the political patronage system.



Notwithstanding the fact that those forming the bureaucracy acted more like rulers rather than public servants, in a largely uncomplicated world of the first three decades of our independence, in most cases, they did have the right quality of education for the job and their remunerations were also in keeping with what the market was offering to people with similar educational profile. However, by the 1980s, the world had changed. It had become more complex. So while in the first three decades the best among the fresh graduates used to sit for the competitive examinations for the Central Superior Services, in the 1980s and subsequently, the best preferred to go to the more lucrative private sector. The quality of the officers that qualified for the civil service started plummeting at a time when specialists rather than generalists were needed to run the business of the government.

The brief outline of reforms being contemplated to bring the Civil Service of Pakistan more in line with modern times is impressive, appears ambitious and no doubt, is likely to have far-reaching consequences. Under the current system of recruitment, training, posting and promotion, the emphasis is on accommodating and propping up generalists. It is very rare that one would find a specialist finance man in the post of secretary finance or a person with any scientific background manning the ministry of science and technology. In a welcome change of approach to this issue, the proposed reform seeks to create a selection structure that would allow the government to hire specialised cadres, who would be recruited by sitting for separate, cluster-based examinations for each service group.

The government also, advisedly, wants to end the ban on lateral entry into the civil service, allowing people in private industry to join senior government positions. And to allow the government to recruit top talent, as well as crack down on corruption, it is very rightly being proposed to offer higher salaries for civil service positions. More than the low salaries, however, it is the discretionary powers in the hands of these bureaucrats that tempt them to indulge in corruption. In the absence of an automatic institutional accountability process, this temptation becomes even more persuasive. So, we agree that performance rather than seniority should be made the overriding criterion for promotion.

We also see the justification in enhancing the retirement age to 60, as well as the policy of appointing officers who have at least five years left in the service to the post of secretaries. Also very rightly, instead of 14, the reforms mandate at least 16 years of education for new candidates seeking careers in civil service. And it is the right step in the right direction to convene an all parties’ conference on civil service reforms aimed at seeking wider political ownership.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st,  2015.

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