An artical is todays papers , "the nation".

saqib zafar



Fall of the DMG empire


IFTEKHAR A. KHAN

An unsavoury event at Excise and Taxation check post at river Indus in
Attock reveals as to who would steal the show henceforth - the sharpshooters
in police uniform or the DMG boys. By a friendly arrangement, police had
swapped duties with Excise and Taxation gurus when a DMG official decided to
check them. Considering it a trespass in their private domain, the police
handcuffed and tortured the official causing him physical injuries.
The treatment meted out to an elite member of the DMG cabal is not only
ill-omened, it does not auger well for the future of the club. Its members,
under the stewardship of a provincial secretary, lost no time in staging a
protest to safeguard their high stakes in the system. DMG, once the shiny
stars of the ruling galaxy, will not take it lying down is obvious. But the
public know that the boys are fighting a rearguard action; they have little
choice but to relinquish their time-honoured hold on power as the devolution
and grass-root affair so ordain.
Notwithstanding the power struggle between police and the DMG, a display of
muscle flexing between two giants, the public is the grass they are likely
to trample. Onlookers feel the police are most likely to triumph and will
have the last laugh, a hyena-like. But why is there a regular show of
strength between various public service departments to assert authority? Is
it love of public service or that more power and authority offer better
prospects of self-aggrandisement? Both the DMG and police whose members in
the upper stratum are selected through a state held examination consider
themselves a class cut above the rest.
A common perception holds that it is a matter of luck and right connections
more than the merit by which the elite members of the services are selected.
For instance, sons and sons-in-law of the senior civil servants are the best
among the aspirants as if the DMG streak is genetic. Commonly understood it
is that if those who pass the exam and qualify at the top go through the
similar tests again, they might find themselves in different service
carders, some may fail altogether. It speaks for the reliability of the
selection procedures.
So far, the influential among the judiciary, armed forces, and politicians,
through backstairs pedalling, managed to induct their kith and kin into the
public service. DMG was the most sought after preserve but not anymore for
which the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) is to blame. NRB changed the
designation of the colonial ¡®Saab¡¯ from awe-inspiring deputy commissioner
to district officer giving the impression as if the ¡®Saab¡¯ is divested of
the executive authority and is now inundated by illegibly written moth-eaten
files of revenue department. It is hardly the life and style that powerful
and influential of the society dream for their progenies.
Recall the unrivalled ascension the members of the DMG once selected
enjoyed. There was to be no other examination for upward mobility until the
¡®Saab¡¯ reached his retirement followed by re-employment. When the
government introduced advanced training courses for promotion, the plan met
with disquiet by the bureaucrats. The existing training courses at NIPA and
Administrative Staff College are hardly graded, therefore, all attending
qualify for promotion. Resultantly, more senior men are available than
existing administrative divisions, districts and tehsils can absorb them. To
accommodate the increasing number of aspirants, more districts and tehsils
are carved out overlooking the economic viability of the undertaking.
By citing various events of mismanagement, DMG now titivated as provincial
management service (PMS) struggles to wrest powers it has lost to the Local
Council Service (LCS), district Nazims and the police. President LCS
association recently met the Chief Minister, Punjab, to communicate the
anguish of its members. The Chief Minister assured the LCS that the policy
to appoint its members as EDOs, DDOs, TOs, would continue. But where will
the DMG, used to plumb appointments as a matter of right, be absorbed? They
were the invisible rulers of the country with minor upheavals here and
there, but now even their designations have changed, almost downgraded. In
that, public have to wait until the tussle, which is the private quest for
power and authority between the members of public service departments, winds
up.
Nawaz Sharif, during his stint in power, inducted many as tehsildars and
police inspectors, while Benazir Bhutto not wishing to stay behind chose
Excise and Taxation and Customs to appease party flunkies. In both cases,
they selected departments where big bucks changed hands. Nobody, for
instance, opted for the likes of Survey of Pakistan or the Metrological
Department. Count the number of MPAs, MNAs, and Senators during the period
and the number of inductees; each one of them will trace back to one or the
other politician.
A retired general, a party grandee, who switched sides after the fall of
Nawaz Sharif, had his son, a trained army doctor, inducted into the DMG. For
politicians these are only frills on the side. Senior judges and Generals
did not lag behind in manoeuvring DMG slots for their kith and kin. The
machination involved two steps: First, to land a public service slot, and
second, to secure a lucrative posting. How does it serve the public interest
on whose taxes the bureaucracy fattens is anybody¡¯s guess? It is mainly why
people hesitate to pay taxes on their hard-earned money. However, the moot
point is whether the DMG will regain its lost paradise. Some think it will,
as it has weathered such tornadoes in the past and has had the last laugh.
But commoners wish to steer clear of the private struggle for perks and
privileges between the two public-spirited departments.
Has anyone had an occasion of meeting a DMG genius? I have. The big man
arrived and prominently ensconced himself in the company of about a dozen
mortals. Unfortunately, the host took his own time to introduce the chief,
who until then sat puffed up and visibly upset by the delay. Upbraiding the
host for his infraction, the chief himself informed all present who he was
and where he was posted. Thereafter, he felt at ease because whatever he
then uttered were taken as pearls of wisdom coming from the horse¡¯s mouth.
How can such genius survive in obscurity?
Email: hpl@lhr.paknet.com.pk