The CSP: dead as a dodo
By Anjum Niaz
Some passerby may some day decide to go deep-sea diving and bring ashore the sunken vessel that has buried within it the secrets of the rise and fall of the CSP
NOT one to harp on my articles past, nor reproduce emails from afar, as some columnists do, I must perforce revisit ‘The rise and fall of the CSP’ only to round up some more kinetic energy among the CSPs (Civil Service of Pakistan) and their many antagonists. The ‘Letters to the Editor’ column of this newspaper and other dailies indicate a lively proclivity for bureaucrat-bashing by letter writers. It seems the public is not in a forgiving mood; nor are the CSPs ready to accept the charge of administering with arrogance, even though the service today is dead as a dodo.
A retired CSP now settled in North America shot off an email to another CSP friend in Islamabad critiquing my article. He wrote that I had “surprisingly” missed “the all-out assault” on CSP unleashed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and how “ZAB’s latrine [sic] entry” was made senior through the device of the secretariat group. “This assault led directly to the loss of confidence” resulting in overall deficient administration by the deputy commissioner of a district. “With piplias (CSPs) able to rig the 1977 election, the stage was set for the removal of ZAB and his ultimate unfortunate end,” ended the CSP from North America.
Indeed it is true. I am at fault for not writing how in 1973, the CSP under Prime Minister Bhutto’s directives became defunct. According to a former CSP who was sitting with Bhutto when PTV was calling the 1977 election results, declaring all the PPP biggies from the NWFP, Punjab and Sindh as victors sweeping the polls “unopposed”, the prime minister’s face turned sickly pale. He knew his “loyal” cadre of ex-CSPs had unwittingly vanquished him by getting their minions to stuff the ballot boxes. “Mr Bhutto lost his cool and was furious with the chief secretaries of these provinces for their ‘over kill’,” remembers the CSP. And he paid for it with a hangman’s noose round his neck.
As we all know, after partition, the ICS or the Indian Civil Service converted into CSP and along with PSP (Police Service of Pakistan) was put under the umbrella of All Pakistan Service, while the Central Superior Services (CSS) included the Foreign Service, Finance and other services such as Audit and Accounts, Railway Accounts, Military Accounts, Taxation, and the Customs and Excise Service (remember, Customs because the hot favourite of CSS boys who wanted to get rich overnight). The CSS also consisted of Postal Service, Military Land and Cantonment Service, Central Secretariat Service, and Central Information Service. Each of these services had its own cadre and composition rules, specifying the total cadre strength in terms of its number of positions.
Bhutto brought all of them under one roof and sent them together for their training at the Civil Service Academy in Lahore. Wrong move, cried out the CSPs, but none heard their cries for help until they went dead.
Reminiscing about CSP colleagues and their brides, the email from North America continued: “She (that being me) could have added on the lighter side that most CSPs who married rich lived to rue the day as their wealthier wives had a domineering attitude. Some CSPs who were sensitive men did not marry at all. They felt that they could not keep a wife (of the sort they aspired to) at the low salary income that was their lot in government pay scales. Of course in Ayub Khan’s era, many CSPs were black sheep but then President Ayub himself was not above board in his public and personal dealings.
“The then deputy commissioner (DC) Jhang was slapped by police during Nawab Kalabagh’s days as the superintendent police (SP) Jhang was Governor Kalabagh’s appointee and the poor DC was not on the inside track. This happened at Trimmu headworks while the DC was going to spend a social evening with the Irrigation boss.”
Just hold it there ... what else is new? Up until today, the bureaucrats get badly thrashed up. And they don’t have the guts to stand up in unison to protest. A 50-plus joint secretary responsible for making the budget was bashed up by an MNA, 20 years his junior, from the ruling party. The guy had to go to the hospital to be patched up. Guess what? The matter has been hushed up and the officer left licking his wounds in some corner of the secretariat probably cursing his own luck for the spat. Chaudhry Shujaat of the Pakistan Muslim League is too powerful a man for any bureaucrat to lock horns with.
Let me get back to the CSP’s email from North America. His CSP friend in Islamabad, a retired federal secretary, wrote back: “But more important than the training are the role models our seniors offered. My first three DCs were no good. The first one was very honest but would do anything to please his bosses. The second one was a political animal and would do more politics than the politicians. Governor Kalabagh would ask his advice as to who should become the Muslim League president of the city under his administration. The third one personally visited the site of a public meeting and had it flooded and electrified before Bhutto’s arrival. He was accompanied by the commissioner; the same commissioner who tried to browbeat me into rigging the constituencies of the forthcoming local elections. All the DCs I mention are alive today and I can go on and on about how mediocre they were. We (the CSPs) thought we were superior, but we were not. Some among us may have been great, but then you can find such exceptional people among the proletariat too.”
The above email exchange between the two retired CSP friends, discursively casual, nonetheless shows us the tip of the iceberg which hit the unsinkable CSP vessel and like the great Titanic sank it unceremoniously. Like the Titanic, the CSP saga lies buried on the lightless ocean bed with all its glorious and inglorious feats disintegrating into nothingness.
But wait, some passerby yet may some day decide to go deep sea diving and bring ashore the sunken vessel that has buried within it the secrets of the rise and fall of the CSP. They are waiting to be told but who will be the first to undertake such an odyssey is not for me to wager a guess. Till eternity then ...
NOTE: Anjum Niaz is not a CSP. She is a Pakistani Journalist living in states.