Imran Shauket
The writer is a former Senior Advisor to the Government and a sector development specialist. He is a member of the APP Think Tank and Pakistan’s Buddhist Heritage Promotion Ambassador for Green Tourism, a company under SIFC.
I am a son of a bureaucrat and hail from a bureaucratic family. My father retired as a Federal Secretary, sister as an Additional Secretary, one brother-in-law attained Shahadat (DPO Narowal) and the other was kidnapped by an Afghan warlord while serving as DC Ziarat – both suffering in the line of duty. As to me, I became many things in life – businessman, development worker, farmer, political worker and writer – but never a bureaucrat. The reason I am going into these personal details is to establish that I have bureaucracy in my DNA and have respect for bureaucrats, as long as they serve as public servants.
Bureaucracy 1.0 (1947 – 1970) and Bureaucracy 2.0 (1970 – 1990) of Pakistan were a committed breed. Their paramount objective was to serve the public, albeit with some decline in quality between 1.0 and 2.0.
Their commitment to serve the public interest sometimes even led them to manipulate the bureaucratic system to act as a buffer between the rulers and the ruled. They would slow down the implementation of bad decisions of rulers, military or political. They were a powerful breed who commanded power, respect, and integrity. Yet for all these, the one thing that was hardly seen was a regular presence of bureaucrats in the press or media. They did their job, and the political leaders presented the results in the media and took the credit.
This is changing in Bureaucracy 3.0.We are starting to witness increasing numbers of the bureaucrats focus on self-service rather than public service. Perhaps it is because the enlightened (sic) political leadership of the country are impressed by the bureaucrats who are marketing themselves better.
Maybe, the political leaders appoint bureaucrats into positions because they catch their eye through social media. Perhaps my friend, who himself has risen in Pakistan to serve in key roles, is right when he said “Imran, jo dikhta hai, woh bitka hai”. Meaning, the one who is seen, is the one who is bought (by the leaders). And it seems that increasing number of the bureaucracy is busy “selling” themselves.
I don’t intent to be overly harsh on the current day bureaucrats since one can argue that in this social media driven world, it is inevitable that the lines get blurred between a media presence and overt self-promotion. The lines are further perhaps blurred between personal and official social media presence. I am sure the bureaucrats, many of whom are only respected for their “chair” rather than their person, confuse their social media popularity due to their position with personal popularity and get increasingly engaged with social media to massage their egos.
Arguably, in Bureaucracy 3.0 (and I might as well add judiciary to this mix), there are many ailments that need to be addressed. Corruption and misuse of funds is rampant (BISP alone has suffered Rs. 141 billion of misuse).
There are allegations of property deals abroad (Khawaja Asif alleges that more than half the senior bureaucrats had acquired properties in Portugal). Public service is trumped by lavish lifestyles.
There has been an erosion of merit, accountability and institutional strength, and in the absence of performance metric and appointments based on political connections, a system structured more for preservation of power than service has emerged. All this has led to a civil service prioritizing image, privilege, and corruption over reform and public welfare where public office has become the most lucrative gateway to private wealth.
Are the bureaucrats to blame for all the fore-noted ailments? I think not. They certainly didn’t start their service with a goal to self-promote or self-serve, or to be corrupt and enrich themselves. I know many who joined the government with a desire for public service and to serve the nation. A majority still strives to do so.
However, the often incompetent and usually enlightened politicians and other powers-that-be have created an environment which changes the public servant and eventually their power of love (for service) changes into a love for power (and money).
I don’t anticipate that the current cadre of political leaders will all of a sudden become competent or enlightened to change this Faustian bureaucracy. They complain, like Khawaja Asif, about the rampant corruption and culture of dual nationality and enrichment, yet it is they who appoint bureaucrats based on loyalty, not merit.
The leadership can take steps to start fixing the government service and here are some suggestions. First, introduce a rigorous, formal and periodic “security clearance” process for bureaucrats. The security clearance process, if emulated from countries like the US, should look into details of wealth, family wealth, multiple citizenships, conflicts of interest, etc. Second, it is simply unacceptable for the keepers of the nation to have their loyalties split, hence dual nationals should be barred from the bureaucracy through legislation.
Finally, social media pages of official functions on personal pages of public servants should be banned. Any activity that they are engaged in the line of duty should be vetted and posted by their communications officer on the official website. The foreign office is one of the few organizations where I see this discipline so perhaps policies do exist, they just need to be enforced.
