The Politicized Workplace
Hardly someone could deny that Pakistan is suffering from a silent and deadly crisis that shows little evidence of abating. The cancer of corruption has reached fatal proportions. Many people believe much of the development and a significant portion of the operations allocations are lost due to bribery and other related illegal and unethical activities. Politics is the profession of service to the people. When politicians seek money to get rich the nation is bound to head for trouble. The civilian government’s inability to deliver basic services and good governance has in fact time and again provided military leadership the opportunity to intervene. The fact remains that Pakistan suffers from the most corrupt, nepotistic and money-hungry administration ever seen in its history. People who work on right principles are unrecognized and considered to be foolish in today’s Pakistan.
The extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure and basic services in the rural areas is in part fueled by bribery, influence peddling, extortion, and abuse of power. Higher level corruption in Pakistan is a result of the connection between bureaucrats, politicians and criminals. Bureaucracy in Pakistan is tasked with the maintenance of the political system in order to ensure the continuity of state policies, political stability, rule of law, promotion of economic development and enrichment of social and cultural cohesion, while staying apolitical. It is deeply mired in corruption, nepotism, cronyism, and is prone to political interference. As a result, it fails to provide good governance to the masses of the country despite claiming major share of the budget.
Today’s bureaucracy is highly partisan, incompetent, unqualified, and unprofessional civil servants contribute significantly to failures in development and force the country to remain essentially underdeveloped. Nobody amongst them thinks the collapse of governance would endanger democracy and the basic rule of law.
There is no doubt that so called elected governments make mistakes. Votes in the Parliament are bought, voter lists are manipulated, and supporters are given financial rewards. It is corruption and graft, but all political regimes have indulged in it freely on debatable level. In fact, the whole process of awarding such favours as bank loans, plots, permits to establish industrial projects, land grants and write-offs of bank loans has been made legal. The government controls all the above and much more, and makes laws to give itself the power it needs to do whatever it wishes. At times, bureaucracy in Pakistan was known as backbone of country`s executive structure and ‘the steel-frame’, on which the whole system of administration depended. It worked efficiently and effectively with utmost dedication and honesty. Now it has become a ‘spineless’ because of its ineffective way of working due to its rampant politicization and resultant corruption.
The people in bureaucracies are supposed to obey the rules. Instead, if the top bureaucrats are willing to go along with the PPP regime, that’s fine. Otherwise, they are replaced by people who are willing to obey their illegal orders. Admittedly the Officials with family responsibility cannot easily take on their corrupt political masters. Politicians could transfer officials, destabilize the education of their children, harass them in other ways, and even register false cases against them. However to meet the crisis in Pakistan sacrifice and courage are needed. The bureaucrats must summon such courage. More and more bureaucrats are getting sick of the excesses committed by politicians. It is time for the honest among them who constitute the vast majority to take a stand.
The question of the relationship between politicians and civil servants does not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, it is hopelessly entangled with the game of politics and of power as it is played in our country. Inefficient bureaucracy in the current regime having close nexus with the politicians is largely responsible for most of the complaints including inadequate infrastructure and corruption, where officials are willing to accept under-the-table payments and companies are tempted to pay to overcome bureaucratic inertia and gain government favors. The very idea of bureaucracy, operating on the basis of merit and defined rules is intended to overcome the problems of corruption. But often the bureaucracy simply becomes a way to make corruption more efficient. Today a large number of people (most of them having relations with politicians) enter civil service only to enjoy position. Once they get through CSS exam and complete training they think they don’t have to do any thing but enjoy position and Power. Such Civil Servants become followers of dirty politicians and become their puppets.
Today, in public perceptions, civil servants in Pakistan are widely seen as unresponsive and corrupt, and bureaucratic procedures cumbersome and exploitative. The civil service’s falling standards impact mostly Pakistan’s poor, widening social and economic divisions between the privileged and underprivileged. Ruling party has decided to promote corruption in all segments of the Society, and has successfully spread corruption particularly in bureaucracy. How much time the honest bureaucracy could last against corrupt rulers depended upon various factors, such as the background the bureaucrats come from, the honor society, friends & relatives have for honest bureaucrats and so on. While some belonging to honorable families resisted; there were many others who lost the track. This may not be black & white, but it is a hard fact on ground that in general the rulers have forced a major segment of bureaucracy to join them in corruption. The politicians should realize the bureaucracy should not be used for short-term political ends, which undermines its functioning.
The existing channels for making complaints against corruption in the government departments have become ineffective. The people have to bribe at different levels in the bureaucratic set-up to have their genuine problems solved. The bureaucracy is even enjoying all powers otherwise supposed to be exercised by the Cabinet, has not been able to improve the public delivery system. The crux of the problem is that the so called Pakistani bureaucracy is controlled by the Politicians, while the back ground work and slogging is done by the bureaucrats the credit is invariably taken by Politicians and in event of any failure the bureaucrat is made accountable, besides there is no price for guessing that both Politics and the Bureaucratic system is highly corrupt that does not create an atmosphere for an honest officer to discharge his duties. The law makers have become the law-breakers. We, the citizens of Pakistan, are busy in our own work. It is pathetic to say that the politicians are elected by us and we don’t have control over them. But how many of us have really thought about what we can do in this regard? When we pledge our precious hours of every day to somebody else and we don’t have time to ourselves and our family, who has time to correct the system. Similarly The Government officials should obey only legal orders of their superiors and no illegal or improper orders issued by politicians should be accepted by officials if issued orally. They must insist upon written orders. If this practice is taken to heart by the bulk of the honest officials running the administration, the nefarious designs of the corrupt political class would be thwarted. If the vast majority of honest bureaucrats were to unite and follow the good principles corruption would end and governance would be restored.
In the last four years of Pakistan Peoples Party Government there has been no proper policy making to provide essential services to the masses and there has been an avalanche of attacks on the living standards of the already impoverished masses. Most of the bureaucrats remain busy to please their masters. They have no time to work on public interest projects. The cost of basic needs has sky-rocketed. There has been a far more rapid price hike of basic commodities in this period than any other period in the country’s troubled history. Unemployment and poverty have surpassed all records. Health, education, water, infrastructure, transport and other basic facilities are in a despicable state. The life of common people is but an agonised existence. And still these miserable conditions continue to deteriorate.
Unfortunately politics in the country has disregarded the rule of law and constitution for personal gain and gratification. Recruitments, postings and promotions in the bureaucracy are now made on the basis of personal contacts and political affiliation, instead of on merit. Bureaucracy has become an arrogant, corrupt, inefficient, over-bearing and self-perpetuating institution that lacks merit due to the poor educational standard and quality of the individuals that join the civil services. Bureaucrats are now believed to exploit their public positions to generate benefits for themselves, their families, and their ethnic or social cleavage. Incompetence and inefficiency among civil servants have been given as other institutional issues associated with bureaucratic corruption in Pakistan. Civil service positions should not be used as rewards for political support or swapped for bribes, or used to meet obligations to one’s personal benefits. The people are concerned at the total lack of seriousness on the part of the rulers.
In view of the prevailing atmosphere, the foremost requirement is the restoration of confidence in the bureaucracy and democratic institutions. Democracy has not been able to deliver development and good governance as expected. Of the many challenges, pervasive corruption, bad governance, deteriorating rule of law and weak state institutions are impediments to Pakistan’s successful transition to real democracy. A series of failed public institutions, deteriorating rule of law, fragile security, two-digit inflation, slumped economy, growing unemployment, rampant corruption, widening poverty, moribund development, rising trade deficit, unregulated market, politicized bureaucracy, poor service delivery, derelict public institutions and fractious politics are enough to choke up Pakistan’s democratization process. Change can come only from the elite that rule the nation. Good governance is largely dependent upon the upright, honest and strong bureaucracy particularly in written constitution wherein important role of implementation has been assigned to the bureaucracy, A consistent bureaucracy is a requirement for continuity of a national policy-bureaucracy implying the secretaries and those working under them to serve the minister in charge of a subject; such staff must not change with the change of a minister and such secretaries must be appointed for a permanent term by an independent body and not the minister; hence is the term permanent secretary in the days before the bureaucracy was politicized in the seventies traditionally as a policy measure.
In the modern state bureaucracy plays very significant role. A modern Civil Service, with its well-defined regulations, the duties they have to perform and their own rights regarding their salaries, their security in service and the like, is linked with democracy and the Rule of Law which is one of its prime functional features. This needs strong and enlightened leadership to address the emergent problems of divergent nature dealing with the aspirations of the people and requirements of the country. When those who make the laws and those who enforce the law are shamelessly corrupt, then the entire society is corrupted. These leaders are supposed to be the role models of the younger generations in Pakistan.
Everyone is equal under the law. But, this noble principle, however, does not apply in Pakistan when corruption or organized crime suspects are political party cadres, businessmen, high-profile bureaucrats or prominent politicians. Besides the politicians, bureaucrats and criminals; the voters are also responsible, to some extent, for the prevailing situation because they do not discharge their civic duty honestly. We can fight this challenge only when democratic institutions are strengthened and made vibrant in prosecuting corruption in all forms. The alarming increase of violence and money influence in the election process is a matter of grave concern which threatens the very survival of the democratic system. There is no accountability, cost-consciousness or consideration for the delivery of quality service in the bureaucracy. While the system is necessary it needs reform to introduce professionalism, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness to enable it to contribute to good governance.
Besides the frustration from political and administrative side, there has been a picture of near collapse of the judicial trial system. The delays and mounting costs of the cases have kept the general people away from justice, thereby causing frustration and blocking of their aspirations. The percentage of cases that go through the whole processes in courts is quite large which urgently need exploration of some other means. Political parties and their ally bureaucrats are rapidly losing their credibility, and gradual decay of their popular trust is detrimental to our democratic transition as well. A high probability of Pakistan becoming a failed state in current situation cannot be ruled out if deteriorating rule of law, corruption and bad governance as a result of bureaucracy-politicians nexus continue. Disappointed with present elected autocrats and frustrated with the graft of so called democracy, many middle-class people in Pakistan are now even longing for the old days of authoritarian rule. Systemic failure to effectively control corruption and provide good governance to 180 million people may cause the downfall of our democratic system ultimately. The ruling elite should understand when trust in governance is questioned and public confidence in such institutions is hollow, public anger flourishes at the cost of democratic system itself.
Apr 21st, 2012 •
