EDITORIAL: Early into its term the PTI government had vowed to reform the bureaucracy claiming that it created problems in the way of 'Naya Pakistan.' Two years on, the bureaucrats have much to complain about the government obstructing their ability to do their job due to rapid postings and transfers. A press report describes in great detail how the changes in key positions in the federal and Punjab governments have become like a game of musical chairs, causing unease within the ruling circles as well. In Islamabad, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has a fourth chairman, that too for a period of just three months (a customs service officer has been given an additional charge) making people wonder as to how the FBR could achieve its ambitious revenue collection targets and perform other functions efficiently. The story is the same in all other departments. So far, the federal government has changed four chief secretaries and five police chiefs. In the health sector four secretaries have come and gone, in one case after just one week amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The interior ministry recently got its fourth secretary.
What has been going on in Punjab is almost like joke. The Usman Buzdar government has changed inspectors general of police five times. By its own standards, a more patent example of musical chairs is the position of Higher Education secretary which has changed occupants as many as nine times, some staying there from a few days to a few weeks or months. It is one-upped by the irrigation department headed as it has been by no less than eleventh secretary, in at least one instance, the same person getting replaced and reappointed within a span of eight months. Which merits the obvious question, if that person was fit for the job, why was he transferred in the first place? That is not all. There is the food department where the secretary has been changed for the fifth time, despite the fact the wheat scandal inquiry committee laid part of the blame for the wheat crisis on frequent changes of food secretaries. The list of quick postings and transfers in other important police and administrative positions goes on and on, making it hard to keep track of them.
These goings-on are reflective of sheer incompetence on the part of the PTI leaders to pick the right person for the right job, and also a proclivity to be misled by vested interests. Chief Minister Usman Buzdar is not famous for his administrative skills, and is said to be interested more in exerting his authority by shifting around senior bureaucrats to favour friends and their friends. But Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to run a tight ship. Under the prevailing circumstances, senior functionaries cannot be counted upon to focus on delivery of service to the people. The law provides them with security of tenure for three years, but as the above examples show more often than not they have hardly time to settle down and familiarize with the job requirements. This is neither good for the morale of bureaucrats nor the demands of good governance. Unless the ruling party takes a hard look on this unproductive practice, and makes amends it will not be able to deliver on its promises to the people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020