The PTI leadership’s claims about being the guardian of merit, good governance and transparency started unraveling within months of its coming to power. Long before 2018 elections, Imran Khan’s aides had succeeded in persuading him that elections could not be won without the support of electables. The political heavyweights inducted in the party subsequently or brought into the ruling alliance as coalition partners depended on patronage politics at the constituency level requiring support from a pliant bureaucracy. This led to demands for the removal of deputy commissioners and DPOs who insisted on working according to the book. Those who resisted unlawful demands were accused of being PML(N) loyalists and replaced by officers considered to be malleable. Soon, these too got scared because of the treatment meted out by NAB to some of the top bureaucrats close to the previous government. The newcomers hesitated in taking decisions or demanded written orders from the ministers concerned. An incompetent Chief Minister got bureaucrats transferred by droves but failed to make government servants pass required orders at the speed desired by the party legislators and allies.
With the Senate elections approaching there are stories in the media about unrest among the ruling coalition lawmakers. The government tried to placate them by announcing a hefty Rs 500 million development grant to each one of the lot. But as the SC threw a spanner in the works by calling it a political bribe, the government was forced to go back on the grant. The only way left to placate the dissenting legislators is to give them a free hand in the appointment and transfers of bureaucrats in their constituencies so that they can oblige supporters and punish political opponents with the help of the state machinery.
This explains the warning issued to 263 officers for failing to resolve public complaints (read ‘MPAs/’MNAs’ complaints). Secretaries of information, agriculture, excise and irrigation departments who have special importance for lawmakers have been asked to ‘improve’ their performance. Letters seeking explanation have been written to 20 deputy commissioners and show-cause notices served on 43 assistant commissioners.
The message conveyed to bureaucracy is plain and simple: do whatever is demanded by the party malcontents, merit or no merit.
