Combating Corruption in Pakistan – The Zubair Bhatti Way

Corruption in Pakistan has been a major cause of concern for Pakistanis as well as for the international community engaged in business or development in Pakistan. In the recent Corruption Perceptions Index, released in late 2010, the country received a low score of 2.3 on a 10 point scale (10=very clean, 0=highly corrupt) and was rated lower than the year before.

Although the government has been refusing to admit the existence of massive corruption, the recent Hajj scandal and a multibillion-rupee scandal at the National Insurance Corporation proved that corruption is rampant. At the grassroots level, bribes are needed to obtain registrations at any government department, while at top levels politicians and other influential people are frequently indulged in corrupt practices.

Astonishingly, in Jhang, a small city in Punjab province, Zubair Bhatti, a District Coordination Officer at the local land registry (Land Revenue Department), has been practicing a unique way to combat corruption at the grassroots level. The idea was simple. Bhatti started calling the individuals that were served by the department to check if they had paid anything over and above official charges. Within a couple of weeks, there was a marked reduction in corrupt practices in the preparation of land transfer documents or Intiqal.


The Punjab Chief Minister has ordered the implementation of this idea in six districts of Pakistan in cooperation with the World Bank. Simple but efficient, can this method of fighting corruption be rolled out in other provinces? Can the business community help build call centers that would undertake the job? These are the big questions awaiting answers.

Source:
Combating Corruption in Pakistan

Promoting disharmony: Police officers wait while juniors climb up the ladder

ISLAMABAD: Senior police officers including members of the Islamabad police were bemused by the news that while their junior colleagues in the District Management Group (DMG) were promoted from Grade 19 to 20, they were kept waiting.

The Central Selection Board (CSB) met in December 2010 to recommend officers for promotion. To the surprise of police officers, only nine of their colleagues were promoted, even though 34 officers of DMG and 52 from the Office Management Group (OMG) were bumped up, officials told The Express Tribune.

“Police officers who had political support were promoted while other equally qualified officers were not given their due right,” said a police official who had been patiently waiting for his ‘timely’ promotion.

Police officers were also denied the 12 vacancies that became available after the promotion of officers from grade-20 to grade-21.

“Many Inspector-Generals in the CSB meeting voiced their concerns and the then establishment secretary assured the CSB chairperson that a meeting will be convened within a month to address the grievances of the officers,” a police officer said.

He said that while a meeting was indeed convened a couple of weeks ago, the matter of promotions of police officers was never raised. Instead nine more members of DMG were given promotions.

“DMG officers recruited in 1996 (24th Common Training Programme) were promoted to grade 20 while police officers recruited in 1990 (18th Common Training Programme) are still waiting in grade 19,” complained another senior police official.

This officer further alleged that certain DMG officers promoted did not even fulfil the minimum requirement of 17 years of experience for promotion to grade 20.

The disappointed police officers said that the denial of timely promotions was breeding frustration among senior police officers. They demanded that the Establishment Division fulfil its promise to convene a CSB meeting to consider promotions for police officers who were neglected earlier.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2011.

Source:
Promoting disharmony: Police officers wait while juniors climb up the ladder – The Express Tribune

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Govt appointed 15 non-career envoys in 2 years


ISLAMABAD - The seriousness of the PPP-led coalition government in handling the country’s foreign affairs could be gauged from the fact that 15 out of the total 32 ambassadors appointed in 2009-10 were non-career or handpicked people.

The foreign ministry documents available to Pakistan Today revealed that during 2009-10, 32 career/non-career ambassadors and high commissioners were appointed at the Pakistan missions abroad.

“The appointment of handpicked contract ambassadors/high commissioners other than from the foreign service of Pakistan is solely the prerogative of the prime minister/head of government while the criteria followed in the appointment of career ambassadors and high commissioners include merit, seniority and professional competence,” said a foreign ministry official.

The considerations involved in the appointments of envoys abroad include competence, fitness, administrative experience and other professional capabilities. The list of 15 non-career ambassadors contains retired generals, businessmen and agriculturists.

As per the documents, Nawabzada Aminullah Khan Raisani was posted in Damascus, Syria, on Aug 22, 2009; Shaheen A Gillani was appointed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on January 15, 2009, M Asghar Afridi in Doha, Qatar, on March 13, 2010; Maj-Gen (retd) Ali Baz in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 30, 2009; Maj-Gen. (retd) Tahir Mehmood Qazi at Kualalumpur, Malaysia, on January 9, 2009; Maj-Gen (retd) Ghazanfar Ali in Ukraine on April 30, 2009; Shahid Malik in New Delhi, India, on July 9, 2009; Jamil Ahmed Khan in Tripoli, Libya, on April 7, 2009; Shafqat Saeed in Paris, France, on October 1, 2009;
Gul Haneef in Lisbon, Portugal, on April 18, 2009; Umar Khan Alisherzai in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on August 12, 2009; Lt-Gen (retd) Salahuddin Begawan in Bandar Seri, Brunei, Darussalam, on September 16, 2009; Prof Dr Syed Khawaja Alqama, in Sana’a, Yemen, on September 14, 2009; Maj-Gen (retd) Asif Duraiz Akhtar inAbuja, Nigeria, on December 1, 2009; and Maj-Gen (retd) M Siddique was posted as the country’s high commissioner to Mauritius on March 21, 2010.

The career diplomats appointed during the said period are as under: Fauzia Nasreen was appointed in Canberra on November 28, 2009; Noor M Jadmani in Tokyo on January 26, 2009; Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in The Hague on January 30, 2009; Mian Gul Akbar Zeb in Ottawa on May 1, 2009; Ra’ana Rahim in Beirut on August 22, 2009; Kausar Ahsan Iqbal in Sofia on August 22, 2009; Khurshid Anwar in Vienna on September 1, 2009; Shahid MG Kiani in Hanoi on October 8, 2009;

Masroor A Junejo in Nairobi on December 1, 2009; Iftikhar Aziz in Kuwait on July 5, 2009; Akhtar Ali Sulehri in Male on July 24, 2009; Abdul Matin Khan in Dakar on August 23, 2009; M Waheed-ul-Hassan in Tashkent on September 12, 2009; Qasim Raza Muttaqi in Budapest on October 2, 2009; Sohail Mahmood in Bangkok on October 20, 2009; Mohsin Razi in Manila on October 28, 2009; and Syed Ibne Abbas in Wellington on January 16, 2010.

Source:
Govt appointed 15 non-career envoys in 2 years | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

26 promoted to the rank of SSP

by Shakeel Anjum
Monday, February 28, 2011

Islamabad

Source: The News

The Departmental Promotion Board (DPB) has promoted 26 superintendents of police (BPS-18) to the rank of SSP (BPS-19), sources in the Establishment Division told ‘The News’ here on Sunday.

A meeting of the DPB in this regard was held in the Establishment Division, which was chaired by Establishment Secretary Chaudhry Abdur Rauf, while all provincial chief secretaries and inspector generals of police attended the meeting as its members.

The DPB discussed the cases of promotion of the BPS-18 officers of Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), District Management Group (DMG) and Office Management Group (OMG). As many as 26 PSP officers were promoted from SP (BPS-18) to the rank of SSP (BPS-19) who have completed all necessary requirements of promotion, including MCMC (Mid-Career Management Course) and satisfactory Performance Evaluation Report (PER), sources said.

The promoted officers include Tariq Nawaz Malik, (who have served for many years with the UN Mission and had returned the previous year and working with the Punjab Police), Mohammad Ismaeel Rind (police officer from Sindh Police), Imran Mehmood (presently serving as chief security police officer with the Prime Minister of Pakistan), Syed Khurram Ali (serving with the Punjab Police), Shahid Javed (community welfare counsellor in Muscat), Fayyaz Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem Akhtar and Muhammad Zubair Dareshak (serving with the Punjab Police), Ashfaq Ahmad Khan (AIG (establishment) in the National Highways and Motorway Police), Dr. Inam Wahid Khan (sector commander in the NH&MP), Mobarik Zeb (SP coordination, Peshawar), Sarfaraz Ahmad Falki, Mohammad Waqas Nazir (former DPO, Pakpattan), Munir Ahmad Zia Rao, Muhammad Kashif Mushtaq Kanjoo, Naeem Ahmad Shaikh (Sindh Police), Shahzad Akbar, Captain (r) Sajjad Hassan Khan Manj, Waqaruddin Syed (KP), Mohammad Ehsen Younas and Babar Bakht Qureshi (the DPB cleared both the officers from their involvement in Sri Lankan cricket team attack case considering the incident as closed), Abdur Rab, Tanvir Ahmad Tahir, Dr. Haider Ashraf (SP VVIP security, Lahore), Tayyab Hafiz Cheema (AIG training, Lahore) and Javed Soonharoo Jaskani (AIG Establishment, Sindh Police, Karachi).

Sources said that the DPB recommended 55 officers of OMG and 15 DMG officers for promotion.

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Muhammad Ali Asghar

Why are public officials transferred so rapidly? - Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque

Egoism has led to a certain form of transparency in government and it is disturbing. Most offices now have nice wooden boards with names of all officials who have warmed that seat in the last few years. But wait a minute, for some reason they hardly get to warm the seat or for even the paint to dry. Let me explain!

These wooden boards have the names of officials who served in those offices as well as the dates of their tenure. In recent visits to many of these offices, I did a quick calculation and found that the tenure of officials in a posting has been extremely short. Most officials are lucky if they remain in a position for more than a year. Secretaries are rotated out almost on a yearly basis, customs officials are lucky if they last a few months and the director cooperatives board is moved so rapidly that he probably remains in a daze.

Why do we have such quick transfers? The explanation is a combination of the following 4 factors.

1. Each of these offices confers certain power and privilege and in some cases even possible certain pecuniary advantages. Quick transfers may be an egalitarian method of sharing these advantages.
2. Longer tenures could make the officer more entrenched, increasing corruption and power gains and possibly even making it difficult to remove her. Quick transfers would prevent any one from being too powerful.
3. Longer tenure could also create a sense of pride in the job leading the officers to improve the situation to the detriment of those that follow. Quick transfer would therefore, keep the rentseeking equilibrium stable.
4. There is a stable group around any leadership that is strengthened by these quick transfers. Key secretaries, such as the principal secretary and the finance secretary are relatively more stable. Their role is obviously strengthened by these quick transfers.

Do these quick transfers affect efficiency of the department? In every job there is a learning content. Management specialists say that a person takes few months to a year to learn the job. Every job also has a creative content in that the incumbent can once having learnt the job develop better methods of doing the job. Learning by doing in a job and innovation through such learning, often results in productivity improvements and reforms. If both these internationally proven facts also apply to Pakistan then certainly these quick transfers are detrimental to efficiency.

Transfers are a colonial legacy. Nowhere in the advanced countries do you have the concept of transfers. Most civil services do not have common cadre. Each department employs, trains and manages its own staff. No transfers are forced on any official to arbitrarily move either location or department. As a result employees are happier and specialize in their respective areas.

Source:
Development 2.0: Why are public officials transferred so rapidly?

Author Profile

Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque has a number of articles relating Pakistan's civil services, please proceed to his blog for further reading.

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

DMG officers pay tribute to AZK Sherdil

LAHORE - District Management Group Association (DMGA) arranged a ceremony at Civil Services Academy Lahore on Sunday to pay tribute to the services of former Bank of Punjab chairman late AZK Sherdil. Former State Bank of Pakistan governor Ishrat Hussain, Moeen Afzal, Jehangir Tareen, Khalid Sultan, former Inspector General of Police Tariq Saleem Dogar and other speakers commended the professional services of AZK Sherdil as a beacon of light for new officers and a DMG asset.

Highlighting various aspects of AZK Sherdil’s personality, they expressed the view that he had elevated country’s image through his services. The ceremony was organized by recently elected DMGA office-bearers. The officers said that AZK Sherdil had served in East Pakistan, Federal area, Balochistan and Punjab in various capacities. They said that late AZK Sherdil had dedicated his life to the service of the country.

The DMG Officers Association comprises of President Dr Jehanzaib Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Senior Vice President Waqas Ali Mehmood from Azad Kashmir, General Secretary Zaman Narijo from Sindh, Vice President Ikram Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Treasurers Kiran Khursheed from Punjab and Executive Council members Irfan Memon from Sindh, Addul Sattar Eisani from Sindh, Daud Barraich from Balochistan and Ahad Cheema, Nabeel Awan and Ali Sarfraz from Punjab.

For the first time, majority of the office-bearers of the DMG Association officer bearers are from provinces other than Punjab. DMG Officers’ services for the country were also highlighted during the meet up and DMGA’s role with regard to the federation was also lauded. The election of majority of the new members from provinces other than Punjab was viewed as a good omen.

Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramdey, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, former IGs Tariq Saleem Dogar, Jehanzeb Burki, Humayun Akhtar Khan, Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami and other important personalities also attended the event.

Source:
DMG officers pay tribute to AZK Sherdil | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Slots of EDOs, DDOs Revenue being abolished

LAHORE – After abolishing 432 seats from the administrative officialdom, and holding of Revenue officers’ slots in abeyance, the Punjab government is gearing up to partially amend the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 in order to abolish the revenue officers’ seats from the district administration.
This will further abolish 74 seats from the administrative machinery from the province.

As per sources, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has signed a summary outlined to abolish the slots of the Executive District Officers-Revenue and Deputy District Officers-Revenue, and the powers would be relegated to other officers.

By virtue of this, powers of the EDOs (R) would be given to the Commissioners. Moreover, at the first instance, powers of the DDOs-Revenue would be handed over by Assistant Commissioners. However, later on, new slot of the District Collector will be introduced as well.

The Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department had sent a summary to CM for this, which had been approved by him. Now, the Department would send the approved summary to the Punjab Assembly, which will amend the PLGO 2001 so that the slots of the EDO-R and DDO-R could be abolished. Earlier, a notification was issued for abolishing 432 seats from 18 various departments.

However, the provincial government held 144 posts of Executive District Officers – Literacy, Law, Information Technology, and Revenue – in abeyance after the Board of Revenue raised objection to it. Now the rest Literacy, Law, Information Technology have not been considered for any legislation, and these can be also abolished after amendments in the PLGO.

Source:
Slots of EDOs, DDOs Revenue being abolished | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Book Launch

LAHORE, March 1: The launching ceremony of a book entitled “A Treatise on the Civil Service of Pakistan: The Structural-Functional History (1601-2011)” will be held at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture here on Wednesday.

The book has been authored by Ms Kiran Khurshid who is a DMG officer of 34th Common and presently working as deputy secretary, Higher Education Department.

Former chief secretary Javed Qureshi will be the chief guest, while Dr Amjad Saqib, Orya Maqbool Jan, Dr Tahir Kamran, FS Aijazuddin and Tariq Sultan will
speak on the occasion.-— Staff Reporter

Source:
Book launch | Newspaper | DAWN.COM

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

SC takes notice of DMG promotions

ISLAMABAD: The issue of controversial promotion of seven officers of District Management Group (DMG) has landed in the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of Pakistan has taken notice of an application moved by a female officer, documents available with The News reveal. The Establishment Division has been directed to submit its reply by March 16, 2011.

According to details, the names of seven officers of DMG, generally considered to be the most powerful group in the civil bureaucracy, were included in the agenda of promotion list of last Central Selection Board (CSB) at the eleventh hour.

A meeting of CSB was held on January 1-2 for the promotion of officers mostly from BPS-19 to BPS-20 and many items were left over in the meeting. A new meeting of the board was convened on February 9 by the Establishment Division to take up the leftover cases but, to the shock of many, a new item was introduced in the leftover agenda which was only for the DMG officers. An application was sent to the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court by one Azra Jamali, Deputy Secretary, Establishment Division, saying that the Establishment Division managed to include cases of DMG officers in BS-19 who had completed their training with her at the eleventh hour through secret and clandestine manoeuvring. “The whole exercise clearly appears to be mala fide and in violations of norms of rules and procedures not to say to discrimination to other officers,” the application says.

The Director HRC of Supreme Court on March 1 has written to the Secretary Establishment: “Take notice that in pursuance of order of the honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan you are required to submit comments on the above application so as to reach this court on/or before March 16, 2011.”

Sources told The News that some 131 officers from 14 groups, including provincial and ex-cadre groups, have recently completed Senior Management Course held at National School of Public Policy, Lahore from September 2010 to January 2011 but only seven DMG officers were handpicked for promotion in the board meeting convened solely for the leftover items in the January 1-2 meeting. Sources said that it was once again the DMG card which was used.

The DMG officers who have been promoted in the CSB meeting include Shahid Ashraf Tarar, Muhammad Ali Shahzada, Ishrat Ali, Ali Sher Mahsud, Ambreen Raza, Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani and Ahsan Ali Mangi. It is worth mentioning here that a few of these officers did not have the required length of service in BPS-20 yet they have been promoted on additional charge basis.

Sources said that the promotion of DMG officers was not part of the original agenda but the list was revised for only DMG officers and an entry at item 6-A Serial No31 “consideration of promotion cases of DMG Officers from BS-19 to BS-20” was put in the agenda item.

Secretary Establishment Rauf Chaudhry had told The News that the vacancies for DMG posts were available, therefore these seven officers were considered for promotion. He mentioned that Secretary Establishment happens to be secretary of all groups and not merely of DMG. He said that the posts in rest of the groups were completely filled but against the 68 DMG posts only 32 officers were promoted in the CSB meeting on Jan 1-2.

Source:
SC takes notice of DMG promotions

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Female DMG officer analyses civil services history in book

Lahore - The launching ceremony of the book “A Treatise on the Civil Service of Pakistan: The Structural-Functional History (1601-2011) by a young DMG Officer Kiran Khurshid was held at PILAC Auditorium on Wednesday. Former Punjab Chief Secretary Javed Ahmed Qureshi while addressing at the occasion said, “civil Service of Pakistan is the most distinguished national institution that has produced public service and integrity icons who served the country with absolute courage, dedication and commitment.

The younger Civil Servants should follow footprints of the stalwarts of the past and follow the glorious traditions of independence of opinion, integrity of character and intellect because Civil Service is a means to serve the motherland.” Mr. Qureshi maintained that the young Civil Service entrants should feel proud of their legacy and should also focus on research. He said that it was the Civil Service institution that shouldered Pakistan’s nascent state in 1947 to develop and strengthen state institutions in the best possible manner.

He, however, also lamented that the successive half hearted reforms failed to bear fruit. “No favor should impinge upon the integrity. The governance and the Civil Service are intrinsically linked. Neither can be studied in isolation”, he concluded. Chairman Punjab Education Foundation Raja Anwar said the Civil Servants should strictly follow business rules. He maintained that the Civil Service was federation’s symbol.

The launch ceremony was also addressed by Faqir Syed Ijazuddin, Tariq Sultan and Dr Amjad Saqib who dwelled upon different facets of the institution and Civil Service history in the sub-continent and added that Civil Service had played a key role during the colonial era. They said it had produced distinguished personalities who emerged as everlasting role models after changing people’s destiny with their hard work.

Earlier, PILAC DG Tariq Javed Afridi and Kiran Khurshid had addressed the ceremony.

Author: Kiran Khursheed joined the Civil Service of Pakistan in July 2003 with the 30th common batch in the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service (PAAS). She reappeared in 2005 and was allocated District Management Group with the 34th common. She has served as visiting faculty at GCU Political Science department where she not only taught courses at MPhil level but also did PHD.

Source:
Female DMG officer analyses civil services history in book | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly