CJ asked to take notice of civil servant slapping case.

ISLAMABAD: In the crowd of around three million generally indifferent, impotent and insensitive members of the civilian bureaucracy in Pakistan, a lone voice of a daring lady officer Anita Turab has approached the Chief Justice of Pakistan in the Waheeda Shah slapping case for a remedy to the humiliation that has hit the entire civil service of Pakistan, writes Ansar Abbasi.

Belonging to the District Management Group, the young lady officer, known for her commendable struggle to revive the impartiality and integrity of the civil service, Anita Turab has sought from the Chief Justice of Pakistan suo moto action against the Sindh government and the contesting candidate Waheeda Shah, who had slapped the election commission’s woman official inside a polling station in Tando Muhammad Khan.

“The petitioner opted recourse for the interference of the apex court as there was no other effective, efficacious and alternate remedy or institution to whom the petitioner could revert. Here the guilt extends far beyond Ms Shah and the humiliation impacts the complete civil services and law abiding citizens,” Anita conveyed to the CJP.

Instead of dealing with the Waheeda Shah incident in isolation, Anita expected from the top-most judge of the country to address the core issues pertaining to restoration of the dignity of the civil services and civil servants to enable them to play their part in the electoral process with utmost dignity and confidence. In this regard, she believes, ensuring security of tenure, apolitical placements and transparent promotions are a must.

“Extraneous influences, like political persuasions, threats, inducements and temptations must be eliminated. The incident of Feb 25 is a typical example of the present state of morale of the civil servants since shorn of any protection of law to ward off recourse to similar degradation,” she pleaded in her petition.

She added that “most civil servants wish to work in an environment where their self respect and dignity is not made vulnerable by all and sundry. A number of us feel committed to stand by a self-imposed code called ‘the Moral Revival’ being the flagship commitment to restore the lost dignity of the civil servants, to reclaim the classic independence of the institution through internal and external reforms,” her petition added.

“Moral Revival” is a recent struggle launched by Anita and a few dozen other young officers to restore the lost dignity of civil servants by ensuring their depoliticisation and high integrity. Anita is the same officer who had spearheaded a silent protest by wearing an arm-band against the unceremonious removal of former secretary establishment Suhail Ahmad for following the Supreme Court’s order. She was perhaps the first and the only officer working under the federal government (Interior Ministry) who has put up a brave face but still could not inspire the crowd of three million.

Anita, who is a shinning grade 19 officer, has also risked earning the wrath of the powerful and mighty by writing to the secretary establishment to seek security of term for the civil servants so that they could not be exploited and used as personal servants by the political masters. She also approached the chairman Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for the Commission’s key role to ensure and protect merit-based selections and appointments in the civil services.

In the same spirit, the officer has now approached the Supreme Court for the sake of reclaiming the principles of good governance. She reminded the CJP that from time to time she had urged the relevant personnel management authorities, to seek corrective realignment of subjective practices in accordance with law, but the response has been feeble. “Nonetheless moral revival stands resolute,” added Anita.

She told the CJP that she seeks to confront political interference in administrative matters and pursue the ‘moral revival’ of the civil services in Pakistan. “Our resolve is expected to enable us in our individual and collective capacity to discharge official duties in accordance with law with requisite degree of dignity and demonstrated self-esteem in our respective institutions of the state,” she said, adding that she was deeply shocked and aggrieved by the failure of the government of Sindh and its law enforcement agencies to prevent public humiliation of one of our lady colleagues, temporarily assigned to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan engaged in the discharge its constitutional obligations regarding bye-elections for PS 53 Provincial Assembly of Sindh.

She added: “The above tragic incident is not an isolated occurrence where a potential lawmaker defied the rule of law and its due process by taking law into her own hands, disregarding Articles 4 and 5 obligations; it reflects a growing mindset in our polity against the civil servants as a class; in anticipation of her electoral victory, the accused acted as a self-appointed prosecutor, judge and executioner; however, realizing that her offence has been captured live, in a bid to derail the legal process, within 24 hours of the incident, the victim appears to have been forced towards apparent reconciliation as if the blatant trespass into ECP’s exclusive domain was a personal or tribal feud thereby making an absolute mockery of the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

Anita did not hesitate to say that the incident is also symptomatic of an all-pervasive and corrosive attitude amongst those with political connections as if they were above the law and the civil services must act as their subservient tool, controlled through arbitrary placements, transfers and promotions of favourites to function with partial or complete servitude, despite categorical declaration of relevant law by this Hon’ble Court [PLD 1987 SC 304 at page 307].

As a citizen of Pakistan, Ms Waheeda Shah was not only liable under the criminal and electoral laws, she may be stripped of any option of holding public office in future; all political parties should also be subjected to specify a ‘Code of Conduct’ for their general membership, under the overall regulatory control of the ECP, Anita demanded.

Source

( Anita Turab belongs to OMG 25th CTP not DMG)