When the present government came in, bureaucratic reforms were announced as the top agenda of the government. Prime Minister Imran Khanfrequently pointed out inefficiency in bureaucracy as a major cause of ills in the governance structure of Pakistan.
Special Advisor for Institutional Reforms and Austerity Measures Dr Ishrat Hussain was given the mammoth task of reforming the civil services. During his three-year tenure, Dr Ishrat worked on several contours of the bureaucracy to bring about a workable idea on leashing this problematic giant. However, before his resignation as special advisor to the PM, Dr Hussain failed to initiate any change in the civil administrative setup.
At this crucial juncture, the PM must look ahead, invite all those who subscribe to the vision of a “Naya Pakistan” to participate wholeheartedly in the process, lead the reform of our institutions so that any future digressions are dealt with appropriately and without bias or nepotism, and create the sort of collective momentum which is the prerequisite for any transformational change in a society on its path to becoming one nation, driven by a shared vision of the future.
Even before that, bureaucratic reforms have been initiated from time to time by previous governments but ended with similar results. The reforms suggested by Dr Ishrat used a top-down approach to reform the top hierarchy of bureaucracy, ignoring the much-needed base of it. This effort is similar to the concept of reverse engineering in which a machine is broken down into pieces to find the fault, instead of making a more efficient machine.
The issues in the bureaucracy of Pakistan are not in its function but in its formation. Major reforms that have been proposed are making of a four-tier bureaucracy including All Pakistan Services, Federal Services, Provincial Services, and District Services, introducing a specialized recruitment process, security of tenure, increasing the ACR weightage for promotion, and increasing the compensation packages.
The above-mentioned reforms are not new for the readers. Dr Ishrat himself has been actively proposing these reforms in the previous governments as well. However, these reforms have failed to reach the implementation stage due to several bottlenecks attached to them.
The bureaucracy of Pakistan is the reflection of the Indian Civil Services introduced by the British government in united India. Since the inception of Pakistan, recurring political crises and hurdles in the way of democracy have helped the bureaucracy to emerge as a strong pillar in the state machinery, resistive to any reformational change made against it.
To rethink the civil services, one has to make strategic changes in the recruitment procedure and functions of the bureaucracy. Firstly, the FPSC needs to come up with a redesigned syllabus that discourages cramming in the written exam. Secondly, the interview weightage in the competitive exam should be increased. This will allow the Commission to pick those candidates who have strong personalities to deal with public issues.
After the revision of the CSS Syllabus in 2016, the rote system has corrupted the core of the recruitment process. Now, only those candidates can make it to the top groups who have bagged good marks in the written stage. Over-weightage to the written marks has made the personality of a candidate completely irrelevant. Later in the services, these candidates fail to deliver in the field. Thirdly, the psychometric assessment should also be given a portion of marks in deciding the final allocation of the candidate.
In the function of bureaucracy, a major hurdle in its performance is understaffing. The overburdened officers are unable to deliver efficient services to the public, which is visible in the quality of governance in the country. This understaffing has a technical reason. The FPSC conducts the competitive exam every year on the recommendation of the Establishment Division. For recruitment of each candidate through the competitive exam, the Establishment Division pays Rs 18,000 to he FPSC. However, after the final recommendation of the allocated candidates, half of the qualified candidates are not given any seat, sending them home unallocated. Despite the deficiency of officers, the state exchequer is ripped off its money.
The quota system needs to be revisited as well. In the 1973 Constitution, the provincial quota for recruitment in civil services was defined for the next 40 years. This law lapsed in 2013. Currently, the quota system is being extended through an SRO from the PM’s Office. Every year, half of the advertised seats go vacant despite the availability of persons qualified for the vacant seats. Technically, once the provincial seats get filled on merit, the empty quota seats could be converted to open merit seats.
Without bringing strategic changes in the recruitment process, the bureaucratic hierarchy cannot be reformed. At the present stage, changing the entire outlook of the bureaucracy will harvest undesired results that in turn can make its performance worse. Moreover, the current stronghold of bureaucracy will resist any step taken against it leading to more difficulties for the elected government to handle it. Gradually rethinking the civil services, bringing reforms at each stage starting from the recruitment process will make it more responsive to the public needs.
