Prime Minister, Imran Khan has been struggling for the last more than 22 years to replace prevalent regressive system based on colonial heritage with a vibrant merit oriented, people friendly system that should give preference to expertise and professionalism and match modern day national requirements.
However, it is disappointing that his government has also been pushed by mafias, who justify repeated experimentation in institutions to their advantage and glorify old legacy of the colonial system.
They are averse to professional expertise and up-to-date knowledge of technical skills. The administrative service mafia who have already become outdated and obsolete in the modern era, try to convince every government that its dominance in governance was panacea to every problem.
The latest report of Reforms Commission about the so called Administrative Reforms is a yet another attempt by the same self-centered bureaucratic lobby to maintain its ascendency.
An in-depth research has been conducted into the matter by a team comprising post-graduate scholars to study recurring weaknesses in our governance system.
In this study, researchers have found that not only corruption was rampant in all local institutions, but these institutions and departments are practically not bound to follow any rules or regulations; any influential person or group can get the laws and rules interpreted or violated in his/her favor. It is a mess created all around with no limits and restrictions.
The system of District Administration, which has been thrust upon at the federal, provincial, district and tehsil level, has already been found rotten, obsolete and having no relevance to the realities on the ground.
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It was devised about 160 years ago by the colonial masters after the war of Independence of 1857. Even at the time of its introduction in the British India, it was publicly stated that this system would be made operative as a temporary measure to control the situation then prevailing in the sub-continent. This system was considered by some members of the then British Parliament as highly suppressive and exploitative in nature for the people.
Concentration of powers at district level with Deputy Commissioner as its head, and Assistant Commissioner at tehsil level, suited the colonial interests of the British Government. In the long succeeding period after independence and it was never allowed to change.
The young officers who were ‘generalists’ without any professional or specific qualification, were selected to rule the country at local, provincial and central levels, and all the departments including the Police were made subservient to them.
They were bestowed with vast administrative and magistracy powers. They were also Collectors of Land Revenue which was a major source of government revenue at that time, and increased their importance and power.
The system worked for two reasons: (1) It served the best interests of the colonial masters as a highly centralized system; (2) The social set-up and its requirements were quite simple, particularly when land revenue was the chief source of government income.
Such a system however was never tried by the British in their own country. Dr. Hafeez Pasha, a prominent economist and former Finance Minister had prepared a report on Tax Administration Reforms during Musharraf Government.
He had stated that the ICS (later DMG and now Administrative Service) had been the premier service because it was performing the most important function of collection of land revenue. But now the role of land revenue was negligible in overall taxes and so administrative service should not have that much importance anymore. In other words, its role was tied with land management of a simpler agricultural society.
This regressive system was not at all suitable for our country after independence. However, Father of the nation did not have time to change it due to his early demise and his successor Liaqat Ali Khan was also assassinated within few years.
Thereafter, the successive governments and civil bureaucracy both considered this outdated system convenient for themselves (for different reasons). The status quo served their purpose at the cost of long term interests of the nation.
With multifarious changes of almost 160 years, this archaic, obsolete and irrelevant colonial system of 19th century is still being justified as “steel frame” of the independent country of ours even today.
It has outlived its utility long ago and is totally out of tune with the complex circumstances of 21st century.
The land revenue which was a major source of government budget in the colonial era, has now very meagre share of revenues at local and provincial levels. There remains therefore no justification to keep such an outdated system intact.
In-fact, successive political and non-political governments have been saving this system to maneuver their vested interests.
The system of selection of ICS/CSPs was primarily designed by the British Government to suit their interests. More than a hundred and sixty years ago, Lord Macaulay, one of the main architects of this system, is quoted to have said: “we will introduce a system in India whereby we’ll hire young graduates, whose flesh will remain Indian but whose mind (thinking) would become English”.
So, such young ‘generalists’ without any professional knowledge were given all-pervasive powers as District Magistrates, administrators, prosecutors, and coordinators of all district organizations/institutions along with the power as collector of government (land) revenue.
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They were the agents of Colonial Government at the district level and were considered godfather or ‘mai bap’ of the people representing the colonial masters. The professionals — the economists, educationists, engineers, doctors, accountants, scientists and experts were made subservient to them and were discouraged, since expertise or wisdom was the privilege of the British Masters.
How unfortunate and shocking it is to know that even after independence, such professionals and experts, who were more intelligent, hardworking and qualified, were not given the status of even a Gazetted Class two officers till early Nineteen Seventies after over thirty years of independence.
Due to weak social and political institutions and uncertain situation inherited at the time of independence coupled with early death of Quaid-e-Azam and Liaqat Ali Khan, the old brand of bureaucratic system became more powerful in its maneuverability as king-makers and intriguers as a group, and it has been jealously guarding its supremacy at the cost of professional groups and specialized institutions/departments.
The generalists have been the policy makers at the central, provincial and local levels with highly centralized mechanism discouraging professional expertise and indigenous local talent. This process increasingly discouraged long term planning based on expertise with proper priorities and consequently the system became the fertile ground for manipulation, flattery, corruption, malpractices, instability and resultantly tug of war and intrigues between various civil service groups and institutions.
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Such a redundant bureaucratic system can survive only during uncertainty and instability of successive governments; and in the vicious circle both, the politicians and top bureaucrats, have been joining hands in the erosion of national institutions and in the plunder of national wealth.
Pakistan is one of the very few countries where policy making at almost all levels of Federal and Provincial tiers is controlled by “generalists” instead of specialists and experts of the respective fields.
For a graduate ( or a post graduate) it would take at least twelve to fifteen years to be an expert of one specific field, whereas a ‘generalist’ administrator of old CSP/DMG and at present Admin Service remains “jack of all trades and master of none” in this age of specialization.
After his appointment as Assistant Commissioner and then Deputy Commissioner, he becomes the head of one provincial department after another. He becomes policy maker as head of Education department, then Health department, Finance and Taxation, Communication then Home department to Irrigation, Industry to Agriculture/Food, to Live Stock, to Labour Manpower, Social Welfare to Local Government and Rural Development and so on.
Likewise, he also heads the Federal departments and is a policy maker at highest level without any specific expertise and involvement in any single field. This elaborates the lack of long term planning and priorities in our country for the last 72 years.
The generalists have not even spared the corporations and posts at divisional levels with purely specialized jobs, which greatly discourage the professionals like engineers, educationists and technical experts, resulting in what is called “brain drain” – the experts leaving the country.
The excuse they give as propaganda tool is that professionals are bad administrators besides being biased because of inter-professional jealousies and (personality) clashes. The generalists have succeeded to use this propaganda for their supremacy because:
(a) they have numerical dominance in the decision making bodies. They endorse each other’s point of view and have tremendous maneuverability and power of manipulation as a mafia (headed by Chief Secretary in a Province), since they control almost all the departments and organizations;
(b) they control Establishment Division at the Centre and Services Department at the provincial level; (c) they develop connections during their postings in the field with politicians, landlords and industrialists and utilize them very successfully;
(d) they are often secretly instrumental in organizing and provoking pressure groups, political elements and vocal influentials, advising them to raise demands through electronic and press, media, processions and strikes. Information is selectively leaked out highlighting government’s weaknesses with negative propaganda to achieve desired results;
(e) articles are got published for and against certain issues, delegations are arranged and then reports/summaries are prepared by using intelligence agencies to their own interest.
At district level, this redundant and outdated system has become core of corruption and inefficiency. Every day, there are complaints in one form or the other, both from public and local specialized departments, in which root cause was found to be this decadent system.
The A.C , D.C and the Commissioner, with the help of Tehsildars and other officials oblige the politicians for arranging their jalsas, meetings, and meet their expenses for boarding and lodging, resorting to every trick of sycophancy, besides rendering useful “advice” and “expertise” in local affairs.
The Tehsildars and Patwaris, everybody knows, fleece the public openly and even a copy of an ordinary legal document of ‘fard’ is not issued without charging illegal money. Same is the case when various bills or cheques are signed or contracts (of development projects) are signed by ACs, DCs or Commissioners.
These officers were known as Political Agents for administering the Tribal Areas and it is well known that smuggling and kidnapping was sponsored by their subordinates in those areas. Despite all these open malpractices, they make everybody believe that they are the guardians of honesty as they cannot be caught.
There are more than 30 departments in every district and it is not possible to know and co-ordinate their functions by a mediocre officer. Their primary job is relevant to land revenue and land settlement/property rights as “mall afsar”. This system has been left by them obsolete and full of complications, resulting in over-delayed litigations, enmities and mutual rivalries among a large section of population with wastage of time and public energy.
The officers of various departments have been complaining that ACs and DCs do not understand the technicalities of the departments and they keep bossing over them just to impose their supremacy. These professional and technical officers are very often insulted and humiliated just because they disagreed on technical grounds.
If something goes wrong, the officer of the concerned department is to be blamed. This also includes the Police department. But if everything goes well then AC, DC and Commissioner gets all the credit.
The generalist head of any organization, department or ministry has hardly ever been held responsible for bad performance and inefficiency of his institution. Instead the non-D.M.G subordinates are made the victim because generalist officers are good at presenting the executive summaries with superficial knowledge of every type.
This supremacy of ignorant generalists over professional competence has resulted in continuous brain drain due to discouraging of professional talent. Even if a professional is appointed head of any organization, the working conditions are made very difficult for him by different methods till he is removed from the post.
A very senior and honest Chartered Accountant appointed as a Commissioner of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, was not provided a Stenographer for one year. A classic example is that of great nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdqul Qadeer Khan, who was humiliated by the bureaucrats to such an extent that he had almost decided to leave the country. But the timely action of the then head of government persuaded him to stay back, by giving him full authority and control over his organization.
The officers of DMG/Administrative Services are deadly against devolution of powers particularly at local level, which is the main aim of the present government to empower people at grass root level. The reason is quite obvious. They would lose their supremacy for ruling over the people through public representatives.
According to a report of UNO experts on Asian Democracies “the elitist culture of bureaucracy by itself is divisive producing distorted values with wrong kind of expertise having no relevance to the living knowledge of society’s needs and possibilities …. some governments are trying to top-down the processes of ‘development’ that seek to serve the masses through bureaucracies and the vested interests, the very agents from whom masses could be liberated …. the result is a continued degeneration of Asian personality starving, semi-starving, dehumanization of millions who have lost their self-respect and sense of their own potential”.
Many reports of various Commissions and Committees on Administrative Reforms during the last more than sixty years have been submitted to various Governments. This includes Cornelius Report (Pay & Services Report 1620), and also during Z.A Bhutto’s period, in which similar observations were made. In a seminar, an expert of very high credibility had remarked : “either you save Pakistan by getting rid of the generalist administrators as policy makers, or you save ACs, DCs, Commissioners and their class as policy makers”.
The Generalist Officers, as the remnant of the past Colonial rule, enjoy unmatched powers and privileges having no specific and direct responsibility. Even as a district collector and in charge of land settlement their figures about lands, crops and other related matters are frequently fudged and incorrect, as is evident from the fact that hardly any correct appraisal could be made about productivity of land and crops in any year by any government. On the contrary corruption is quite rampant right under their nose in the offices of Tehsildars, Registrars, Patwaris and Magistrates.
They are known by the seat they occupy and not by expertise they have. Therefore they cannot enhance the status of the institutions they head and instead they reduce their level to the level of their mediocrity. They vehemently oppose any purposeful changes in the system for fear of losing the power and supremacy and they have keen desire to get the past glory restored.
As regards law and order, it is increasingly becoming specific to Police Organization. The Police Officers are rightly protesting against the bureaucratic attempt to revert to colonial system. Police should be headed by Police Commissioner as is the practice in various countries including India and Japan etc. A thorough study was made in this regard during General Musharraf’s time and Police Law was properly amended keeping in view the requirement of our society.
Making Police subordinate to AC, DC or Commissioner will not work and will create damaging problems for the government.
Let us hope that government would avoid to repeat unnecessary and outdated experimentations, and better sense would prevail in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister.
(The writer is a retired bureaucrat. He served in different capacities including Chief Commissioner / DG, FBR Tax Administration. He can be reached at s.irshadshaheen@hotmail.com)
