"Though the will of the majority in all cases must prevail, but that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that minority possesses equal rights, which equality laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression".
Does enactment of the Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill 2013 measure up to the standard of a rightful legislation as defined by Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of history's most enduring democracy, the United States of America? Forget about how cunningly the bill was tabled at the fag end of the sitting of the assembly and hurriedly passed without debate as the opposition had left the house in a huff. Don't bother that the enactment was of a controversial issue now before the court, and may earn the contempt of court notice, and only a day before its hearing by the court. Never mind if among the beneficiaries of this enactment, which gives legal protection to out-of-turn promotions, are included the mover law minister's own two brothers. Also, don't get greatly disturbed that as the Sindh Assembly was passing this bill the target killers were on rampage in the provincial capital Karachi, with police acting as a silent spectator - because quite a few of its officers have been given out-of-turn promotions. Is it a 'move to encourage police officials who protect the citizens', as claimed by treasury benches - as if protecting citizens is somebody's else job and the Karachi police has taken upon this mission out of love for humanity? Or, to benefit the cronies whose failure to protect lives of ordinary people is as total and unquestioned. During the last one year alone as many as 2,300 people were killed, while 22,000 absconders and proclaimed offenders roam about freely in the city of Karachi - a biblical failure on the part of a force, which ironically, has won it legislative recognition in the form of this enactment.
Given the slimy growth of our national politics not much should be expected from the political elite in terms of public service or better governance. But it is a flourishing business. Even when the national economy (read the life of common man) is in free fall, an average political family is much richer and prosperous. That the bureaucracy is so much obsequious and willing and consenting to feed its political masters' unsuitable appetite for more pelf and power - it is disgusting. In a developing country like ours, senior civil servants are expected to act as custodian of people's rights and privileges. And they are paid accordingly. But no more in Pakistan where senior officers live the lives of lords with unlimited access to national kitty. Over and above salary and allowances now he/she is also entitled to (a grade-22 officer) to something like Rs 96,000 per month only in form of transport magnetisation facility. How many of them have surrendered official cars - hardly any. And all this is happening in our country, thanks to their political masters' acknowledgement of their expertise in bending the rules to present the illegal as legal and lawful.
No wonder then the colossal failure of government in containing violence is as much the result of inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy, perhaps more, as for the political elite's machinations to remain in power by hook or by crook. If one is to give only one reason for the relentless mayhem in Karachi, it is that the mega city's police is thoroughly politicised. The blue-eye inductees and out-of-turn promoted police officers owe nothing to the people but everything to their patrons, and these patrons enjoy best of security and protection as Karachi burns. Only by strictly following the law regulating the officers' induction and promotion can we have an efficient bureaucracy. At the same time, it would be worthwhile to determine if these out-of-turn promotions, unreserved upgrading of pay scales and regularising ad hoc employees' service by the government in its dying days is not a kind of pre-poll rigging. A spineless officialdom may be of service to political masters but not of any good to the people of Pakistan. The Sindh PA must not lose sight of the fact that only good ideas lead to good legislation.
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