The rise and fall of CSP
By Anjum Niaz
Before the quota evil set in, post-independence Pakistan got the best and the brightest boys entering the CSP. Not anymore, though
When I was growing up in the ‘60s, the boilerplate for a dream husband was a CSP. To bag one was everyone’s chase. The mama of the CSP considered her son a swell catch for her to demand anything in the dowry — say a car, imported wardrobe for her son, a beautiful house with value-added gadgets thrown in — from the girl’s family.
Greed had ballooned to ugly heights manifested in the prenuptials and wish lists brazenly forwarded from CSP-wallahs. One heard of many a betrothal cut asunder because the made-to-order dowry wasn’t good enough. Bidding wars were the norm and ditched maidens, no matter how fair, a common sight.
Simply called CSP, who then was this chap inducted in the Civil Service of Pakistan? To demystify this ‘piece of moon’ or chaand ka tukra as he was known, let’s cut through the moonshine showered around his persona. We will find that he was an ordinary guy, smart, clever and a nerd perhaps, to have cleared the exam and more importantly the viva voce. Any graduate could sit for the yearly exam, irrespective of caste, creed, wealth, status and gender. You could be a peasant or a prince, it was irrelevant as long as you were bright. A level playing field was provided for all, especially before the curse of the quota system botched up merit and brought in nincompoops by the dozens.
Post-independence (before the quota evil set in), Pakistan got the best and the brightest boys entering the CSP. Groomed to be rulers, the young men led charmed lives right from the time they were handed charge of a district, division or a government department. They were the acknowledged kings. They were the accepted benevolent rulers enjoying undiluted powers vested in them by the centre or the governor of the province where they served.
The CSPs may have developed outsized egos. They may have taken themselves too seriously. Some may have become arrogant, others haughty. Their wives may have thrown their weight around as big begum sahibas and terrorized the lesser beings around them. Their children may have been conscious of their daddies’ pelf, power and perks. Their relatives may have tried using their connections for getting petty work done.
But in sum, the CSPs of those halcyon days were not a corrupt cadre. Nor were they hustlers (except for one or two.) Neither were they jockeys riding political power horses. They were plain boring paper-pushers; bureaucratic babus. The diligent ones brought home a box full of files every night that needed close scrutiny and quick decisions. Disposing of public business was their training ingrained into them from the beginning. The common man received swift, fair and transparent hearing from these officials, albeit stiff-necked with shades of brown sahib still prevalent in their carriage despite the Brits having quit our soil in 1947.
Enter the military. But wait, before we bring in the much maligned military, there arose another force from within the service that hijacked the CSP cadre and destabilized the political process in Punjab after partition. It was known as the police.
The IG or the inspector-general of police enjoyed unlimited powers. He had the ear of the governor and the chief minister. The IG was also head of the province’s intelligence agency, known as the CID (Criminal Investigation Department). “This CID had been the most hated and dreaded organization in Punjab for several decades before independence. It could make or mar the career of young men or act as an oppressive force against peaceful citizens in several ways,” writes an officer who belonged to the Indian Civil Service (ICS) which was the precursor of the CSP.
When the first battle began between the first governor of Punjab, Sir Francis Mudie, and the Muslim League appointed chief minister the Khan of Mamdot, IG police Qurban Ali Khan supported Governor Mudie. More about the spat later.
The Englishman Mudie then turned his guns on the acting chief secretary, Khawaja Abdul Rahim, and another officer, Hassan Akhtar. He directed senior officials to conduct an inquiry against them. Manzur Qadir was picked by Mudie to act both as procurer of evidence and a prosecutor counsel. “What Manzur Qadir did was to walk into my room in the late afternoon every day and to ask me to send for a particular official and get me to record his statement with reference to the subject matter known to him. After the statement of two officials were recorded in this manner on two consecutive days, l told Manzur Qadir that while l was no lawyer, l had administered law for a number of years, the procedure was open to serious objection and would most probably be inadmissible in evidence. When the case came up before the court, objection was taken by the defence counsel to Manzur Qadir appearing as prosecution counsel,” remembers the man who was serving as the chief secretary then.
As anticipated the court held that the counsel had sought to act both as an investigator and prosecutor and this was against the canons of law and justice. The court called upon Manzur Qadir to withdraw from the case. This case attracted a lot of notoriety in the press. Abdur Rahim was in due course removed from service but allowed compassionate pension. Hassan Akhtar was also removed from service after the court had held charges framed against him as established.
This was the first assault on the Civil Service of Pakistan from outsiders.
And the last occurred recently when four members of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) suffered collateral damage because of the reported falling out of their chairman, Gen (retd) Jamshed Kiani, with the president and the prime minister. Bureaucrats are not meant to talk to the press, but the general who belonged to the famous 10 Corps that has conducted coups on civilian governments in the past including the last one on Nawaz Sharif with Kiani at the helm unilaterally decided to go to the press and open up his heart.
But if Gen Kiani’s conscience didn’t allow him to keep silent over promotions and extensions ordered by the prime minister, he should have resigned instead of continuing in his job and at the end of the day, call the press to speak evil of the prime minister and president. As an officer and a gentleman, the best course for him would have been to request the president to relieve him of his chairmanship as it was not possible for him to accept the two undeserving candidates the prime minister had cleared for promotion.
Why drag in the four former bureaucrats, members of the FPSC, into the fray and take them down with him? To get rid of Kiani, an ordinance limiting the tenure to three years instead of five was passed and the four bureaucrats who had completed their three years were told to go home. Hence the collateral damage that these four suffered.
Why have a general head the FPSC is my quarrel with the chief executive of the country. Under him the militarization of civil service has made the CSPs and the CSS (Central Superior Services) a deadwood. How did it happen and why did the bureaucrats permit infiltration from the khakis in their ranks is a story of deceit, betrayal, intrigue and above all a breach among the bureaucratic ranks that defies repair.