The Crippled Bureaucracy of Pakistan
By Syed Osman Sher
Mississauga, Canada
It is a common knowledge that the edifice of a State stands on three pillars, viz. Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary. The Legislature represents the aspirations of the people, according to which it enacts laws and plans of economic and social advancement, and of national security; the Executive carries out those orders, and the Judiciary’s enforces the laws of the land by dispensing justice. All the three components are equally important. Weakness on one’s part is liable to weaken the State, as a loose leg of a tripod is likely to bring down everything with it.
Sadly, the Legislature in Pakistan has experienced historically the predominance of a particular class of people and their progenies as its members, whose main concern has been to amass power and pelf to the total disregard of the welfare of the people and advancement of the country. With the Legislature not functioning in accordance with the aspirations of the nation, Pakistan has come to a pass that of the three branches of the State only one and a half are working well and the rest havelost their ability to carry out their responsibilities in an effective manner resulting in the decadence of society. Of the Executive, consisting of civil and military bureaucracy, the civil side has totally been made subservient to the Legislature, or the politicians, by removing such laws from the Constitution that had provided it the much-needed security to make independent decisions. The military bureaucracy, however, is holding on its own by dint of its gun-power.
After the Independence in 1947, when the politicians were vying for power, it was the civil bureaucracy, knowing all the nuances and tricks of running the Government, that was credited with assisting the nascent governments in their smooth running, as also for adopting a course that had taken Pakistan to a fairly high level of development. The other more important factors for their good performance were the politicians’ high consideration for the civil servants, as also the protections that were given tothem under the Constitution.
Their worth was recognized by as high a politician as the Head of the State, Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself. Addressing the civil servants at Peshawar in April 1948, he said, “The first thing that I want to tell you is that you should never be influenced by any political pressure, by any political party or any individual politician. If you want to raise the prestige and greatness of Pakistan you must not fall victim to any pressure but do your duty as servants of the people and the state, fearlessly and honestly. The services are the backbone of the state. Governments are formed. Governments are defeated. Prime Ministers come and go, ministers come and go, but you stay on. Therefore, there is a very great responsibility placed on your shoulders”.
He reiterated this theme in his address to the civil servants at Chittagong in March 1948, “You have to do your duty as servants; you are not concerned with this political or that political party; that is not your business… The Government in power for the time being must also realize and understand their responsibilities that you are not to be used for this party or that. I know we are saddled with old legacy, old mentality, old psychology and it haunts our footsteps, but it is up to you now to act as true servants of the people even at the risk of any Minister or Ministry trying to interfere with you in the discharge of your duties as civil servants”.
The civil servants had enjoyed protections under the Government of India Act, 1935, which continued after the Independence. They were made part of the subsequent Constitutions of 1956, 1962, and 1972, the last being an interim one under the martial law administration of Z.A. Bhutto. Article 181 of the 1956 Constitution says, "No person who is a member of a civil service of the Federation or of a province or of an All Pakistan Service or holds a civil post in connection with the affairs of the Federation, or of a province shall be dismissed or removed from service or reduced in rank by an authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed,” i.e., President or Governor. Further, he was given a reasonable opportunity of showing cause before the imposition of a major penalty, a right of appeal after the punishment, and the assurance of no adverse change in the terms and conditions of service. To one’s utter dismay, these constitutional protections were taken away in the Constitution of 1973 that was framed under the democratic rule of Z. A. Bhutto. Clause 13 laid down that a person holding a grade 21 or grade 22 post shall stand retired on any date that the government directs him to retire, and all others, i.e., from grade 1 to grade 20 shall retire on any date after the completion of 25 years' service, as the government directs. The feudal mindset of the members of the Legislature had come into play, i.e., the power in totality must be the prerogative of the master of the land.
This mala fide measure made the public servants, especially of the highest ranks of Secretary, and Additional Secretary,as servants of the members of the Legislature, and not of the State. The beleaguered bureaucracy turned into a bunch of sycophants, came in handy to carry out their orders, right or wrong. In this process, the bureaucracy itself became an auxiliary to the corruption. Gradually there was corruption galore.
Recently, when the judiciary has taken its first step towards accountability, the members of the Legislature, with the exception of a few good ones, have thrown away all norms of decency to the wind in order to put in disrepute on the remaining pillars of the State, the Judiciary, and the Military. Is it a step towards withering away of the State of Pakistan by establishing the dictatorship of the oligarchs?
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