Bureaucracy-Third World and Pakistan
Bureaucracy Third World and Pakistan:
A system where people of state work in the top adminstrative level and eventually lead in the policy and decision making process of public offices in any country. This is very vital function for any country. If the people of the state are satified from the function of Government, it is the only Key performance indicator (KPI). Switzerland and Denmark are said the countries with best bureaucracy.
Whereas, Suriname, Venzuela,Equitorial Guinea and Brazil are considered as worst bureaucracy system.
Who is a Bureaucrate:
These people are called bureaucrats, and are non elected Government officials, selected on the basis of some acedemic and some short adminstrative and management training later on. This criteria varries from country to country
Who is a Technocrate:
A technocrate is person who performs the same function as above, either in public or private sector.
A technocrate possess strong knowledge and skill, based on this expertise he/she can perform the adminstrative function more efficiently as compare to a simple bureaucrate.
Do we really need either of One:
So, once we came to know that a technocrate is better in performance , then why we need bureaucrates for the country?, or without any of them, can we run the administration of a country?
The instant answer is no, we need to have one of them.
The ideal process would be an election of technocrates similar to election of members of national and provincial assemblies in Pakistan. But this could be possible when there are ample numbers of learned and skilled people are available and functioning in the society in the form of scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, chartered Acccountant, teachers, professors and other social scientists.
Now the question appears, can a system of bureaucracy produce technocrates?
Below are the basic points in order to understand above question.
1.The basic standard of selection of bureaucrates determines the quality of human resources. There are two types of superior civil services institutions in Pakistan, one is the Federal Public Services Commission(FPSC); another is the Provincial Public service commission for Baluchistan, KPK,Punjab and Sind.
2.Identification of need where these people are required for the smooth function of public administration.
3.The general perception of the society, means consideration of merit and skills in selection of their routine economic and social process.
4.Strong legal and judiaciary system where equality of human rights are guaranteed and general access to these rights are equally available for all citizens of the state.
5.Harmony and peace among different communities living in the society of any state.
6. Diversity of culture and customs are acknowledged and treated equally at state level.
7.Equal rights and means of education, health safety, transportation and security for all citizens of the state.
8.To ensure equal civil facilities for urban and rural areas.
9.Envolve private sector to initiate small industries and better agriculture activities in rural areas.
10.Easy market access for people residing in remote areas for their products and services, without violating the rights of any other citizen of the society.
If above aspects are available in the overall society of any state, it will produce a quality human resource for the society and the civil services. Now we will use the term " civil services" for both bureaucrates and technocrates in our discussion ahead.
How Bureaucracy works in Pakistan
The civil servises works in 12 directorates in Pakistan which are noted below in two groups, viz, domestic and foreign services:
1.Domestic public adminitration.
a.Government land, sea and air custom.
b.District Administration Services, which is now termed as Pakistan adminstrative services (PAS).
c.civil defense and Police Services
d.Inland Revenue or Finance services.
e.Finance and Trade Services.
f.Information services
g.Military land and contonment services
h.Office Management and secretariat services.
i.Audit and Account Services
j.Post office services
k.Railway, transport, airway and shipping services.
2.Foreign public administration
a.Foreign services in Embassies outside country or state.
b.Foreign services in international institution like UNO, World Bank, SAARC, Islamic Summit, continental developmental bodies etc.
c.Branches of state owned corporates outside like banks, transport companies, Insurance companies etc. A private sector bureaucracy mainly play its part in these organization.
Federal Public Services Commision Of Pakistan:
Now we discuss how the Federal Public service Commission recruits people for the most vital task of civil administration of the country.
Below are the basic requirement for the Central Superior Services examination of Pakistan, which is held once yearly.
1.Age limit between 21 to 30 years.
2.A citizen of Pakistan or Azad Kashmir.
3.Domicile as a proof for point No. 2.
4.Minimum 2nd class bachelors degree approved from Higher Education Commission either from Pakistan or foreign university.
5.A third class bachelors degree holder can also apply for the examination provided, he/she attains a higher grade in Masters degree.
6.The examination is based on written and interview formats. Having six compulsary subjects; English eassy,English precise and composition, General science and ability,current affairs, Pakistan affairs, Islamic studies or comparative study of major religions.
Once, after successful completion of examination criteria there are two main aspects for the potential candidate in joining the actual civil services function of Pakistan.
1.The availability of jobs in FederalCivil services in Pakistan.
2.The allocation of quota system for the available jobs.
Below is the applicable quota for any post in civil services of Pakistan.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After a detailed discussion about Civil services in Pakistan, we came to know that only 7.5% of successful canditate are posted on merit basis accross the Pakistan and remaining 92.5% jobs are allocated on the basis on regional and provincial quota basis. Here, one can easily find out that under such a bureaurcatic culture, where majority is selected on the basis other than merit, a technocrate can not survive. We have a recent examples of current and past Governments in Pakistan, where educated technocrates were appointed as advisor to Prime Minister, but they could not survive due to existing system. Some of the technocrates came from international corporates and well known local private sectors as well. So, we noted due to below reasons, the technocrates could not perform in the existing civil services sytem of Pakistan. And even the bureaucrates selected on the basis of merit finds difficult to perform independently: 1.Since, 92.5% beaurcrates are appointed disregarding merit criteria, cause a major hindrance in the development of Pakistan civil services. 2.These are non elected members in the civil services, hence there is no impact on their survival even if any political Government collapse due to non performance. 3.There is a lack of technical and professional culture which eventually exit the technocrates from the process. 4.Based on non merit selection criteria, the civil services prefer the status quo in the system. 5.The performance of Government suffers. 6.The citizen of the state not be satified. 7.There remains a gap of quality human resourse in the civil services of Pakistan. 8.Lack of KPI's for the better performance of civil services. 9.lack of unbiased approach for the performance. 10.Absense of vision and long run state welfare approach. The way how to improve System: Now we discuss, how to improve the performance of Superior civil services in Pakistan. 1.There should be a system of election of civil service employees based on pre determined seats which are necessarily required to run the civil services 2.Only technocrates should be eligible and abolish the unnessary position of the existing sytem. 3.Merit based system for the election or selection of human resource in the civil services. Government must have a direct interaction channel with top performing universities students. 4.Developing a culture of performance based criteria for the existance, development and promotion of civil services in Pakistan 5.Unbiased and non political based inflow of human resource. 6.Asking technocrates from Private sector to join civil services of Pakistan. 7.Engage university students on internship basis in the process of civil services. 8.Engage Senators, members of national and provincial assemblies to order to develop quality human resourse for the civil services. Role of Senate in the Current Civil Services: Now we suggest how senate of Pakistan can play it role in the resource development of civil services. In the current political setup, there is no direct role of senate for the development of civil services of Pakistan. Senate is a upper house of parliment, which represent all provinces equally in Pakistan. National assembly is a lower house of parliment. Senate acts as a next tier of legislation process after national assembly which process bill for the final approval of President of Pakistan in most of the cases to form a law in the country. There are 96 total seats in the Senate of Pakistan. As per below:
Senate can perform as per below for the development of Civil services in Pakistan. 1.Senate itself should be composed of technocrates in the existing categories. 2.Senate can act as an interface between federal and provincial civil services. 3.Focus on the process of quality recruitment of human resource for the civil services of Pakistan. 4.Remove over staffing of civil services on both federal and provincial level. 5.Ensure merit selection in civil services and abolishing all existing quotas 6.Posting of fresh post graduates students in civil services on mandatory interinship basis. 7.Revisit the existing bureaucratic setup of Provincials Governors, City commisioners etc keeping in view the cost and services return benefits. 8.Involve senior citizens, specially technocrates of private sector in the civil services reformation process. We tried to discuss few aspects above, there could be many more directions to improve the quality of our civil services. It need only concrete and sincere steps. Further, the topic under discussion is not country specific, rather few examples are added here from Pakistan civil services system. This system is more or less similar in every country of the world. Please share your thought and comments to improve our society, a big bigger and better place. Qazi Muhammad Salahuddin Our Global Society https://qsalahudddin.blogspot.com/   | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The topic is self explanatory , writer have crystal clear idea. worth to read.
ReplyDeleteNice article. Very detailed and investgative as well.
ReplyDeletePersonally i think we need to break the set corrupt circle where honesty, integrity and personal past performances are not considered.
Keep Quran, ahadith and Omar's principles of governance in front and thats we need.
Remember, you can not catch a clean fish from dirty bad smell water.
Thanks for your comment, totally agree to your thought.
Delete