We are cultural morons and as a result, we Pakistanis have been able to hack away at our own abilities to survive. Pettiness and meanness abound in the system. Take any tier of the bureaucracy and see how it operates and you will see what I mean by the upper government echelons of the society. Intrigue and backbiting seem to be the order of the day.
The old simple days of managing the country have long been overtaken by the complexity of the situation these days. The cultural problem that has emanated from the days of the last regime apart the bureaucracy's culture has been ill-defined ever-since there was another kind of serious attack on the recruitment and lateral entrant to the service cadre.
The earlier civil service may have had its difficult issues, but it had the courage of its convictions. Ever-since the days of Ayub Khan, the entrants have been from the army, which ipso factor meant that people with minimum qualifications, entered the work place and they were not in any way linked to the development or the regulation system for which the former civil service was trained and educated for. The academics aside, the tough entry training at the academy was meant to remove any and all kinks through a system of tough training.
The academy was the place for intensive and extensive hands on and mental development and the unforeseen never addressed question of attitudes and values took place here. It was tough going if you had the likes of Shoaib Sultan Khan and Dr Tariq Siddiqui on the staff. There were no quarters given and none taken. The slogging started at 5 in the mornings and ended with a guest night well past the night.
The entry of Air Force condemned GDP and other navy personnel added to the dilution affect. Not that as persons they were terrible but they had a different mindset. The icing on the cake was apparent when the Federal Public Service Commission [FPSC] was handed over to the generals, who were posted as chairman of the FPSC. They were not at all aware of the requirements and inner dimensions of the service. The system further took a kick when the various cadres started to challenge the system as they wanted to be in the top positions.
The governments that came with every unsystematic change modified the service to their requirements and wanted them to be in servile position. All of a sudden, the whole system was up for grabs. The section officers [SOs] scheme the brain child of an ICS officer was in a shambles as the SOs scheme was meant for the ministry and these recruits that had replaced the superintendent system were supposed to grow only in financial terms and not in terms of designations.
The SOs were more or less, like the policemen on the beat. Regressive and doing the same beat all the time. They were the ones who would be the wood-peckers of the system and peg away at the same wood all the time. Soon the secretaries started accepting all that the SOs wrote as a matter of insurance, for if they changed the system, the next government was sure to be given a mala fide account of what had been going on. They became the tattlers of the system tattling and blowing all kinds of prejudices to save their own skin. The incoming people were also in need of these marginal files and they started to assume all kinds of nigger in the wood pile requirements. The stay and the manner of these activities were such as to make the ego full blown, especially for those who thought they were the king's wisdom personified. Overtime the stagnant system was further stagnated by the policies of the power block because of their own inabilities to do anything.
The tools that became important were short-cuts that did not mean a thing. Zia asked for summaries not the entire files and a culture of commission and omission started. Musharraf started one better with presentations and those were even more criminal in intention as the power point came into existence. The reading ability and the ability of the Shahabs and Fida Hussain were not available. Their credibility lay in their detached and mature fashion of working and understanding the areas.
All of the ICS and the CSP were grounded in the rural areas where they had their earlier training and working. Thus a person became a Deputy Commissioner after he had had a stint as the civil judge and then an Additional Sessions Judge. Musharraf's time took that disruption further. The newly-elected government did not understand why a central command structure wanted a localised system of governance.
History will tell you the weakling are those that cannot understand and resist the power structure. A survey of the Nazims and Naib Nazims would release important data that has to be taken into account. The UNDP was cleverly involved. The system broke down by its own weight. Pakistan, because it had relied on outside forces had managed to dismantle the system of governance. It got pliable spineless people in the bureaucracy to work for them. If that is what the rulers wanted they got it. Sixty years of abuse hurled at the bureaucracy had made it gutless and spineless.
Were these people trained for and mentally ready for the job? How are positions given these days? There is an area-connectivity and there is a family system and then a caste system. In fact, all kinds of ploys are used as a fulcrum to ease oneself into positions of authority.
In all my days in the service there was only one minister, who really wanted to know and that was Dr Jamote who came in as minister of agriculture and then resigned because the very system that he had come to help had done preciously little to address serious matters. His was a very developed mind.
There were others and one has to mention Majid Malik for his ground realities and the hard working Yousaf Talpur, given to decency and the excellence in detached work. The others I am afraid were all passing shows. All of us are.
What kind of bureaucracy does Pakistan want? Should it be gutless and spineless? Should it take decisions and guide the political system that comes its way? Are they to be condemned for being in the service of Pakistan and should they be vilified because they had worked with the last government? What attitudes do they bring into the system? How are they to be academically developed? Should they be touts to the West? Should they be inward and not be in the service of the people but in the service of the minister? What degree of mental and physical corruption can be and should be tolerated? What is happening in the developed world is any one's guess.
Projects after projects have failed. Failed miserably and added to the debt burden without making any headway in the working of the system and delivering what was to be delivered. Go through the portfolio of all the projects and see how the previous chairman had done. The current one and the one before Sardar Aseff were excellent appointees. Coming from the political system, Sardar Aseff was from rural areas and understood the agriculture sector as only he can.
Decisions came quick and fast. He understood the plight of the farmers and during his short tenure, he did much more than what was done by others in the span of ten years. The political system jerked him out of the system despite the fact that he was a major player in the working of the Planning commission.
What is required is systematic selection process and no joker should be allowed to tinker with the system. The Socrates and the Descartes of the system can and should be taken to hell should that kind of interference is allowed. The FPSC be empowered and their detached view accepted. Give and have the courage to believe that the system that is detached is good for the country. Yes, they will make mistakes, but those will not be intentional ones. Unintentional ones can be corrected.
There is no problem with honest mistakes. Get honesty into place. Have the procedure settled. Do not let mavericks no matter how close to the power structures mess up with the system.
When criminal intent is missing, the work will take place. What's wrong with disobeying that which is not condoned by law? What is wrong with talking cudgels against the system? What's wrong with fair and equitable play? What's right with having everything your way? Check it out? Do not be afraid of telling a minister or a secretary that he has messed with the system. Look for common surnames if you have to determine how they have entered the service of Pakistan? How they have manipulated the working to their own advantage? The world is yours if that is done otherwise sooner or later all systems indulging in nepotism and favouritism will end up on the chopping lock. Take care. Courage and convictions now will go a long way.