The President pleads for merit

In one of his last speeches as President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi pleaded for merit. Yes, no society can advance without merit. Right man for the right job is imperative. Dr Alvi will be remembered as a decent, soft-spoken head of state who performed his duties according to the laid down procedures.

He walked the fine line. Now that a new resident of the Presidency has been elected it is time to reflect on the performance of the earlier occupants. I have had the chance of interacting with three Presidents (Farooq Leghari, Asif Ali Zardari, Arif Alvi).

Two of them completed their terms of office while Leghari was pushed out by the stampede of Nawaz Sharif’s overwhelming mandate. Zardari has made a comeback while Dr Alvi may or may not go back to his dental practice in Karachi from where he started his innings.

As an insider and outsider of Islamabad, I must painfully state that the enemy within the system is grossly underestimated by the newcomers who come and occupy positions of authority where they are supposed to introduce reforms for the welfare of the people for which enforcement of merit is the first step. Without an iota of hesitation, I can say it is very difficult to ensure this vital ingredient of success called merit.

With my head up I can proudly say that as Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) I enforced strict merit as my own selection was based on it.

The person selected on merit stands out as he/she brims with competence and confidence which is rarely found in the land of the pure today. As the first-born free generation of Pakistan, we were raised to be honest and fair.

Merit prevailed by and large. From school to employment, it was all merit. In January 1977, I opened my professional innings as an Apprentice Engineer in PITAC (Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Centre) located on Ferozepur Road, Lahore.

In response to an advertisement in the newspaper, I applied for the job. Interviews were held and candidates were selected. My old man was gracious to buy me a used car with the clear understanding that running, and maintenance will fall on me.

As the salary was a meager (Rs 600 and later Rs 900) I could only afford fuel for half of the month, had to walk to work for the remaining days. My colleague and friend Nauman Siddiqui (late) was kind enough to offer a free ride on request as my house was on his way. Life was pure and simple; honesty and integrity were revered and practiced. Everyone showed up for work on time and could not leave without permission. The office gates were manned and checked.

The pleading by the outgoing President clearly indicates that all is not well in the state that he headed for five years. Problems of Pakistan are well understood but no one is willing to stick his head out to bell the cat that rules over us.

A major course correction is required which calls for sacrifice and strength/willingness to take on the evil, the required firm grit is missing today at all levels. As Chairman my first confrontation with the Mafia within was to enforce merit in selection to fill approved vacancies.

I was confronted with an interesting situation. Standard excuse for lack of performance was shortage of staff. When I reviewed the vacancies, to my surprise I found that positions were purposely kept vacant to accommodate relatives.

I decided to advertise all openings within the foundation. The first two appointments were two young scientists who had graduated from the Agriculture University Faisalabad. Appointment letters were issued. One of them reported for work while the other called to inquire about his selection. On inquiry I was told that his letter was issued but he did not respond.

The moment of truth had arrived very soon in my term as Chairman. I asked the Secretary of the foundation to conduct an inquiry. Before the report was compiled, a senior official tried to blackmail me. He put in his application for long leave which I granted after finding his replacement.

He then pleaded to withdraw his request which was denied. The day he went on leave he was replaced. His transfer resulted in a ‘Mafia Storm ‘. I got telephone calls from the highest offices of the land, but I stood my ground as I knew with him in control merit would be impossible to enforce.

With him gone all positions thereafter were filled on merit after due process, perhaps it was my biggest contribution to the foundation was in merits selection. We do hear about a term ‘Sawab-e-Jaraia’ (Everlasting blessings) but there is also a concept of ‘Gunah-e-Jaraia’ (Continuity of sin). Appointment against merit constitutes the latter.

I rate President Leghari very high. As a former bureaucrat he understood their mentality very well. He played a key role in the deregulation of the Telecom sector. As member of his Technology Foresight Committee, I personally interacted with him. With his support we were able to overrule the objections of the bureaucracy. Two federal Secretaries (Defence, Science & Technology) vehemently opposed the move.

According to them, it was a security hazard. Luckily, I had done some work on frequencies in the USA where only a specified band of frequency is reserved for the Armed Forces while the rest is free for use. Today Pakistan has one of the fastest growing Telecom sectors in the world.

Then an under-hand deal was stuck to take control of the Sui Gas field. A private business Group was offered to buy the shares of PPL (Pakistan Petroleum Limited). I wrote several articles to stop this robbery of a vital energy resource, but it fell on deaf ears.

President wrote a lengthy letter to the then Federal Secretary to personally come and explain the deal. The process continued unabated; finally, we formed a team of legal experts and got stay from Baluchistan High Court thus saving the vital energy resource.

My interaction with the Zardari Presidency was not good. I managed to get an appointment to seek his help in developing the Thar Coal project that was hijacked by a Nuclear Scientist working in the Planning Commission. First, I met the then Deputy Chairman who raised his hands in helplessness and advised me to meet the President.

I had prepared a presentation for him but instead his Chief of Staff met me. I urged him to expedite mining at Thar. The Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) being tried was waste of time and money. He agreed with me and suggested that the Deputy Chairman should stop the project. I informed him that the Planning Commission seems helpless, but he refused to intervene. It was a perfect case of dereliction of responsibility at the highest level.

Dr Alvi as President was very open-minded regularly, kept in touch with old colleagues. The PM House kept its door open during the lifetime of Comrade Naeem-ul-Haq but after him the situation started to change, and the bureaucrats became powerful.

I was nominated for the vacant position of Co-ordinator COMSTECH from where I could continue with my project of Gasification of Coal. As it was a nominated position a Search Committee was formed in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

One member of the committee declined his nomination as he wanted to be considered for the post. As a result, the committee was re-constituted but one senior member was retained in violation of the recusal rule as his sub-ordinate was now a candidate. The committee met under the Chairmanship of the Foreign Minister instead of the Minister of Science and Technology.

An evaluation criterion was agreed upon in the first meeting. The selection process was manipulated by the senior member in connivance with the bureaucracy in PM Secretariat. Right under the nose of the President and PM selection was carried out in total violation of merit. I requested the Information Commission to check the merit list based on the agreed evaluation criteria.

The commission was informed that there was no merit list. Complaint was lodged with the office of the Federal Ombudsman. Hearing was held but before the decision the Ministry of Science and Technology filed an application that as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was involved the Ombudsman office should not entertain the complaint.

I then met the bureaucrats in the PM office and other members of the Search Committee who all agreed that the senior member had manipulated the process to get his sub-ordinate selected against merit, but no one had the courage to stop him. I was advised not to go to court to avoid embarrassment as several Muslim countries were involved.

President Leghari used his background in bureaucracy to deliver change. He handled the bureaucrats on the file, regularly wrote to the federal secretaries for inputs,personally presided over several committees, and took keen interest in development of technology. Dr Alvi was involved in development of IT sector and supervised facilitation of people with special needs.

He facilitated the Coal Gasification project with Government of Sindh. Finally, we were able to achieve gasification in September 2023 but four years later had the work started in 2019 under COMSTECH. Unlike Leghari, Dr Alvi was able to complete his term but the quest for merit continues despite his pleading.

Merit is the way forward as it used to be before the Ziaists took control of the country. Dr Arif Alvi will leave a mixed legacy as President but will be remembered as a good and decent person who occupied the Presidency for over five years.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024