New Sindh police chief

KARACHI, March 5: The Karachi police chief, Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari, has been posted as the new Provincial Police Officer, Sindh, with immediate effect and till further orders.

A notification issued by the establishment division stated that Mr Leghari, a BS-21 officer of the Police Service of Pakistan who is currently serving in Sindh, is posted as the Sindh police chief in his own pay and scale with immediate effect and until further orders.

The new PPO was appointed in place of Salahuddin Babar Khattak — a superannuated officer re-employed for a second time as Sindh police chief on a contract basis — who was shown the door last month by the government to comply with a directive of the Supreme Court.

Mr Leghari was appointed the Capital City Police Officer, Karachi, in September last year in place of the then CCPO Waseem Ahmed, who was given the prized posting of director general of the Federal Investigation Agency.

Source:
New Sindh police chief | Newspaper | DAWN.COM

Age relaxaion for CSS Exams part 2: One step forward, two steps backward – by Shamoon Qureshi

Salus Populi Suprema lex- CSS 2012 Age Relaxation

CSS Age Relaxation issue has been highlighted and strongly demanded by all the quarters of serious aspirants but government is standing unfazed by its audacious decision passed back in 2008. This article is also the manifestation of strongest demand of people, which is indeed gaining momentum. This is the continuum of my previous article.

The population of Pakistan is roughly about 180,000,000, following is the historical trend which shows the rise of urban population since the country’s creation. It means that Pakistan is going to transit from agro economy to industrial economy (unfortunately shrinking economy).

Historical Populations

Census.............Population................Urban
1951 .................33,816,000................17.80%
1961 .................42,978,000 ................22.46%
1972 .................65,321,000................ 25.40%
1981 .................84,254,000............... 28.28%
1998 .................130,580,000.............. 32.51%
2008 .................172,800,000.............. 32.34%

However, according to the 2009 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),60.3% of Pakistanis live on less than $2 a day. The World Bank Report 2010 for second fiscal mentions that 3.4 million more people will go below poverty level in Pakistan. The prices for basic commodities have also inflated manyfolds. It means, for students, that one has to drop one’s education for good(bad) to render the support to ailing household economy. Another option for them is that to discontinue the education temporarily and earn the tuition fee while supporting the family. For this purpose one has to afford the academic gaps and late completion of education. If one does so, one goes beyond the prescribed age limit for CSS and government’s set rules blocks one’s entry to even appear in CSS exam and serve one’s own country in the capacity he/she deserves. How ironic!!!

Now cast a glimpse at the literacy rate in Pakistan:

definition: aged 10 and over and can read and write

Total population: 57%
Male: 69%
Female: 45% (2009 est.)

If you go to HEC website, only 132 degree awarding institutes are there in the Land of Pure which are registered, let alone their capacity to cater the need of education to the masses. Let alone the dwindling financial powers of masses to afford higher education, with rocketing sky high inflation and transcending poverty level, at the cost of their household budget. The dilemma goes on and on, and whole cabinet had orchestrated the music which made our PM harp on the same tunes of NO REFORMS, NO ADVACEMENT.

Above statistics of literacy make us think that the figures depicted in it would represent mostly under-grads or less even many with no formal education certificate/degree because we don’t have infrastructure to educate 57% of 180,000,000 people in universities or degree awarding colleges. It is proven; remember fake degree holders in assemblies through 2008 election, 342 seats in national assembly couldn’t be filled out by all geniune degree holders some were fake degree holder legislator. There are some brave people who somehow managed to get higher education by fits and starts, by leaps and bounds and by sheer will of theirs to get better themselves and their families are prohibited to even take the competitive exam to serve their country because of their ‘age’!!!! As state of the Pakistani politics is well evident that no educated person wants to get involved himself/herself that is why most parties found dearth of educated people in their lines, therefore, they fielded fake degree holders in their constituencies. Apart of it, Pakistan is not a welfare state where there is free education for all, free meal for all, free health facilities for all, free of security issues and government would take care people’s all basic needs. We live in a third world country where we have to pay the tax for the most basic necessity to live, Water, tax for daily consumption. In an article published in Daily Dawn dated 24-02-2011 (by Asghar Soomro) with the title ‘Why short term remedies’, he referred a report published by a Lahore based NGO which I feel like to share:

It is pertinent to refer here to a Lahore-based NGO’s Annual Status of Education Report Pakistan 2010. The report indicates a higher rate (25.3) of tuition for students of private schools as compared to those in government schools (9.7 per cent). Private schools tend to fleece parents under one pretext or another. At the time of the final decision regarding the future of those schools one hopes all these factors are taken into consideration and parents are not left to the mercy of the entrepreneurs.

The dictator Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf who tampered with the civil services rules, may be in good faith, confessed in an interview with Jasmine aired by Samma TV that he failed to bring about reforms which he intended to. He particularly mentioned his failure to devolve power to grass root level and couldn’t fully cooked the recipe to the taste of general public. Hence his reforms turned out to be the half backed cake that is why government is reverting back to old commissioner system. Government argues that the Local body system has miserably failed to deliver as to what it was deemed in the past, consequently lot of troubles followed e.g. one of the biggest is profiteering at the grass root level. There are also some other administrative issues circumscribing this system. If the architect of this system himself confessing that it is now a half baked cake then why to cling with this piece of raw commodity. It is requested to either transit wholly or scrub its vestiges out of the country. If the system is being reverted back to old style then all scheme has to be restructured.

Many times FPSC has tried to draw the government’s attention towards the deteriorating state of education system which is portrayed in all FPSC’s, KPPSC’s and other boards’ annual reports but all ranting, raving and lamenting have fallen on government’s deaf ears. It is hard to make people understand the benefits of reform when their benefits are associated with not understanding and sticking to their rot. All the time FPSC chairman called on the President and Prime Minister and told about the lack of interest and capability of general public towards the civil services but their meeting can be summarized as ‘they met, wept and left’, no result at all.

HEC is trying to make our higher education system abreast with international education system but our requirements are that of primitive type. Listen to US president’s first speech to State of the Union in which he announced the waiver of education loan to 50% if the borrower joins public service. And here in our land of pure people are restricted to even take the exam to prove their competency. Our Prime Minister wants young people to run the state affairs while allowing the oldies to stay in their office even after retirement by bestowing on them extended contracts. The pretext behind their extension is the dearth of mature and capable people required to run the sophisticated and strategic positions.

All aspirants request Prime Minister and President of Pakistan to please consider candidates demand and decide in favor of the will of public- Please FPSC, PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER ENHANCE AGE AND ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION CRITERIA; 16 YEARS OF EDUCATION AND 35 YEARS OF GENERAL AGE RELAXATION.

Source:
Age relaxaion for CSS Exams part 2: One step forward, two steps backward ? by Shamoon Qureshi*|*Let Us Build Pakistan

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

Punjab government kicks into high gear

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has decided to bring back the assistant commissioner (AC) (BPS-17) through an amendment in the local government law. As many as 17 bills will be tabled in the session of the Punjab Assembly starting on March 11.

In a meeting chaired by the Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, the cabinet approved drafts of 17 amendment bills regarding the Punjab Government Rules of Business-2011 and running of the affairs of the Local Government, Information, Culture & Youth Affairs, Revenue, Labour, Health, Law and Social Welfare departments, recently transferred to the provinces in the wake of the 18th constitutional amendment.

General Pervez Musharraf had curtailed the magisterial powers of the ACs in 2001 and re-introduced the post with the new moniker of deputy district officer (DDO) (Revenue). Earlier, ACs had also been the collector in the tehsil where they exercised all revenue powers as well as need of administration. The DDO (Revenue) only enjoyed revenue powers and was not responsible for law and order.

Shahbaz Sharif in 2009 had re-introduced the slot of commissioner by amending the Land Revenue Act. However, after the 18th amendment, local government had become a provincial chapter and the CM has again introduced ACs instead of DDO (Revenue). A few months ago, the CM had abolished 560 different posts including the DDOs (Revenue). The chief minister also issued instructions for setting up a cabinet committee for the strict implementation of minimum wages law in the light of the orders of the Supreme Court.

It was decided that provincial secretaries will pay regular visits to districts in order to solve people’s problems besides improving the efficiency of their departments along with monitoring the performance of their officers.

Expressing his displeasure over the performance of executive district officers for education and health, the CM said that an army of such officers had failed to bring improvement in these sectors. He said the failure to start classes was proof of the unsatisfactory performance of these officers in spite of the availability of teachers and school buildings.

He said that ministers, advisors and secretaries had been assigned the responsibility to monitor arrangements at examination centres for matriculation examinations and he will also visit these centres for this purpose.

The CM further said that implementation of the law regarding minimum wages was a responsibility of the government and a cabinet committee headed by Senior Advisor Sirdar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa was being set up which will soon present its recommendations on this. The chief minister congratulated the cabinet committee set up for the amendment in the rules of various departments in the wake of the 18th amendment for completing the job.

Source:
Punjab government kicks into high gear – The Express Tribune

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

Fahim’s daughter’s appointment likely to be challenged

LONDON - With the Supreme Court following zero tolerance policy towards violation of rules and regulation, officers of the Foreign Office have decided to approach the SC over the direct induction of Federal Minister for Commerce Amin Fahim’s daughter in the Foreign Service of Pakistan, sources told Pakistan Today.

Fahim’s daughter, Maliha Amin, was appointed first secretary in Pakistan Embassy Dublin, Ireland in 2009 on the special instructions of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Maliha, with a simple masters degree and no experience of international affairs and diplomacy was appointed by Gilani to appease her father, who at that time was annoyed with the party’s top leadership after being ignored for the post of the prime minister.

A senior official of the Foreign Office in London said Maliha’s case was unique as politicians and former military officers have been appointed ambassadors to serve Pakistan abroad but it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that a private individual was appointed first secretary in the Foreign Service of Pakistan without going through the CSS examination. Encouraged by the SC’s recent decisions regarding contractual appointments and violation of merit, officers of the Foreign Service of Pakistan have decided to challenge Maliha’s appointment.

Source:
Fahim’s daughter’s appointment likely to be challenged | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

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

Literati in civil service

I HAVE just finished reading a voluminous book, A Treatise on the Civil Service of Pakistan: The Structural-Functional History (1601-2011).

This book is an analytical study of the institution of civil services in the subcontinent.

What is more amazing is that this mammoth research work has been conducted solely by author Kiran Khurshid, a young DMG officer of 34th Common Training Programme, 2005.

According to the author’s profile, she also authored A Gazetteer by the Native and compiled A Catalogue of Revenue Estates in Sadar tehsil, Faisalabad, with site maps.

She, therefore, deserves kudos for sparing some time for research work and writing.

For some reasons, the bureaucracy is the most misunderstood institution in Pakistan and is usually portrayed as arrogant, unfriendly and inaccessible to the hoi polloi.

However, after reading the book, I feel that 96 Muslim ICS officers who opted for Pakistan in 1947 were quite energetic, capable and professional who worked hard to run the affairs of the nascent state of Pakistan and set up different institutions.

However, the successive political imbroglios resulted in general decay and incongruity, and the CSPs cannot be blamed alone.

Professional civil servants are considered a national asset the world over and they are trained to exhibit full potential in public service.

As the DMG mostly deals with the public and no governance efforts could be materialised without the officers’ involvement, they, therefore, should be given a conducive environment to act according to the law and no political infringement should hinder their lawful work.

It is a good sign that our civil servants are also turning to research writing.

It reminds me of the legacy of the giants of the legendary ICS who earned a niche in different fields because of their hard work, dedication and intellect.

Today’s civil servants should also follow such seniors because, I believe, a civil service is not a routine career but a lifetime opportunity to serve the people and the motherland with dedication.

This is the only lesson our new entrants need to learn.

QUDRAT ULLAH
Lahore Cantt

Source:
Literati in civil service | Newspaper | DAWN.COM

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

“Have you read Syed Saadat’s piece?” asked a probationary officer with gusto.

“No I haven’t. Why?” I replied.

“It’s about us. They are talking about us – about our meager salaries”, replied the officer. The word spread in the Civil Services Academy and everybody was reading or sharing the piece.

Syed Saadat, a young bureaucrat, talked about corruption and how the civil servants are left with no other option if they want to support their families. The tone was sarcastic and bitter filled with cynicism – the article was something that not just the young officers in the academy could relate to, but so could the senior officers in the field. Then Syed Anwar Mehmood came out with his own plea about the salary structure of the civil servants. For the days to come in the academy, it seemed as if the poor salary structure was the only ill afflicting the once prestigious institution of the country.

The lush green grounds and the gnarled trees of the Civil Services Academy have seen many bureaucrats in the making since 1973 belonging to different occupational groups. The argument that the civil service has lost the ability to attract the brightest minds of the country does not hold true. One, the claim that the profession once hosted the brightest and the wisest is itself debatable. Second, although the prestige of civil service has declined over the years yet there are still examples of doctors and engineers, and other professionals, who forgo other opportunities and scholarships to join the service. There is a lady officer who was selected on a Rhodes Scholarship but chose to join the civil service this year. She certainly knew what she was getting into. Same goes for other officers who consciously made a decision to join the service.

I agree, salary is a very important issue concerning the civil servants, especially when they compare themselves with graduates of top universities working in the private sector. Here, I would also like to mention that the notion that graduates of LUMS and NUST, or other universities, getting paid high starting salaries (around 40,000-60,000) is largely exaggerated. This may be an exception with a very few graduates but it certainly is not the general practice these days. Low salary structure, even though an issue, certainly does not highlight the fundamental ills of the service.

By constantly talking about the declining prestige of the civil service, we are not talking about the real issues. The status and esteem of the institution was destined to evolve as it shifted, rather languidly from its colonial legacy. The real debate is not whether the service has the same esteem in the country or not, but it is whether it has succeeded in delivering on its main functions. And if it hasn’t, then is the poor salary structure holding the officers back from working diligently? Most of the corruption that takes place in the service results after this rationalisation where the system is blamed first and foremost for not taking ‘adequate care’ of them.

Let’s talk facts. The fact is many officers are in different occupational groups not because they opted for it or due to their aptitude, but because they scored lower than others in some subject and fell at a certain place on the merit list.

The fact is there is a serious crisis of capacity in the service as well. The gap between capacity of the service to discharge its duties and the enormity of issues is widening persistently. It has less to do with the declining ‘prestige’ of the civil service and more to do with the stagnant capacity of civil services and plethora of issues.

The civil service has failed to evolve with time and was thus unsuccessful in responding to increasing challenges. The recent reforms in a few areas, though steps in positive direction, may prove too little too late. Increase in salaries can always only be one small step in attracting more people to the service but it can never guarantee improvement in services. For that we will have to think on other lines.



Ali Baraan is a critic.

Source
Young bureaucrats in the making

What about the DMG?

In the haze of the 18th Amendment’s implementation, and the hullabaloo over the Higher Education Commission, some important things are entirely missing from the national discourse. Many advocates of a federal system of governance in Pakistan are propagating a post-18th Amendment scenario in which there will be lots of loose ends, and no one to tie them together. Others are arguing that an absence of capacity in the provinces is reason enough to deny provinces the autonomy to decide the best course of action for their future.

We have good reason to be deeply suspicious of centralist arguments. Centralism has failed utterly, and comprehensively, to deliver anything to the people of Pakistan. But the answer to the problems created by the military’s obsession with centralised power is not provincialism and the linguistic and ethnic divisiveness it depends on. Cheap, convenient and politically flammable provincialism cannot solve Pakistan’s problem, any more than cheap jingoistic centralism can.

The founding fathers of Pakistan and the framers of Pakistan’s constitution knew better. They proposed a federal structure because federal governance has roots, not only in the Indian sub-continent’s long history of governing diverse populations, but also in early Muslim history.

The idea of federalism is simple, and flexible. At its basics, it is a form of government that allows separate sub-national units, like provinces, to come together under the umbrella of a central government. These constituent units then cede some functions and autonomy to the centre, and in response, are given guarantees by the centre.

A typical federal structure allows the highest level of policy and decision-making, like defense and foreign policy to be done by central governments, whilst retaining most aspects of governance that have a direct link with the people. Belonging to the federation frees the energy and resources of constituent units to focus on the things that really matter – like police, schools, roads and water.

Pakistan has rarely had the chance to be governed as a federation. There are two kinds of resources that governments value – financial and human. For Pakistan to be a true federation, it has to demonstrate that provinces control enough money and people to do their jobs and to do them well.

The seventh National Finance Commission (NFC), agreed in December 2009, and announced in 2010 goes some way to address the money part of the problem. Provinces have been ceding financial autonomy to the centre, have been providing the centre with revenue, and have watched the centre take more, and more, and more, every year.

In fact, until the rather revolutionary NFC award of 2010, the central government in Islamabad had slyly manipulated the federal share, from 20 percent of the divisible pool in 1974 to as high as 67.5 percent under the interim government for which Shahid Javed Burki was finance minister (in 1996). Notwithstanding the addition of new taxes in the divisible pool, the diminishing provincial share in the Pakistani state’s wealth is the most powerful proof of the military’s vigourous centralist appetite.

True federalists would be right to celebrate the seventh NFC award as a victory, but they need to be weary of how small this victory really is. The original 1:4 formula, with provinces allowing the centre 20 percent of national revenue, whilst they spend 80 percent, the federal character may serve as one benchmark. The logic for this would be that it would return Pakistan’s federal system to the vision of the framers of the constitution. Other formulae may work, but not without compelling logic that vests itself within the concept of federalism.

Of course, quarelling over money is not new or unique to Pakistan. It is also not rocket science. Even if Pakistan were to discover and implement the perfect fiscal autonomy for provinces, it would be an incomplete and flawed federation. The real prize for true federalists in Pakistan is not the scalp of the HEC, nor the Ministry of Health. The real prize is the All Pakistan Unified Grades. Figuring out how to fix Pakistan’s powerful, dysfunctional and super-entitled centralised civil service edifice is the holy grail of Pakistani federalism.

The All Pakistan Unified Grades, is the group of three federal civil service occupational groups – the DMG, the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) and the Secretariat Group (SG) – that have a cross-country jurisdiction and mandate. In principle, there is nothing wrong with having an APUG, in fact, an APUG is indispensible for a good, functional federation.

However, a majority of civil servants that are members of the APUG – mostly the DMG and PSP, do not work for the federal government. They work for provincial governments. What is particularly important to remember about the APUG is that it is made up of officers only (that is those civil servants who belong to BSP 17 and above). These cohorts of senior officers of the government of Pakistan – from BPS 17 to BPS 22 – make and implement public policy every day.

Even more important is the share of jobs in the provincial governments that are reserved for the APUG. In 1992, an Inter-Provincial Cabinet Coordination Committee decision stipulated that there will be fixed percentages of posts for the APUG, by grade, in the provinces. What’s more, this reservation progressively increases the share of APUG civil servants, at the expense of provincial civil servants. At BPS 17, only 25 percent of provincial positions are reserved for APUG, but for BPS 18, BPS 19, BPS 20 and BPS 21, the shares are 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent and 65 percent respectively.

In this kind of a context, provinces can have all the autonomy they like. They can also take all of the money from the divisible pool that they like. But the men and women through whose steady hands provinces expect service delivery, essentially, are all federal resources. Their qibla can never be Karachi, Lahore, Quetta or Peshawar. Their qibla is the Establishment Division of the Federal Government.

So why has there be no discussion of the reform of the civil services? Because of all the interest groups, all the rent-seekers and all the charlatans this great country gives sanctuary and succour to, none have it as good as the elite senior civil servants of the PSP, the Secretariat Group and especially, the DMG. Good and honest civil servants suffer as badly as the citizens of this country, while smooth-talking charlatans enable their political bosses to suck the life out of Pakistan’s fiscal and administrative viability.

These senior officers, mostly BPS 21 and BPS 22 are the ones that occupy the boards of publically owned companies like PIA. They are the ones who prevent reform, and reformation within Pakistan’s cancerous public administrative system. Most importantly, they have been the enablers of military interventions from the very first one this nation was cursed with. No serious discussion of a truly federal future for Pakistan can be conducted in the absence of a discussion of how Pakistan’s civil services will be reformed to tackle post 18th-Amendment public policy challenges.

The writer advises governments, donors and NGOs on public policy. Mosharraf Zaidi

Source:
What about the DMG?

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

Language training farce at Foreign Office

By Baqir Sajjad Syed
30th of June, 2011.

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office is clearly lost in translation.Every year, it imparts foreign language training, essential for effective diplomacy, to about 20 young diplomats but then forgets to post the trained officers in regions where that language is spoken. Instead they are sent to places where their language may even be irrelevant.

The result is not only loss of millions spent on the language training of those officers, but the country also loses an opportunity to properly understand what is being said around the globe and express its position on issues critical to it.

Let’s take a quick survey of the latest posting plan for third secretaries to get an idea of the confusion that is prevalent.

Afaq Ahmed, currently assistant director on Kashmir desk, had been trained in French language in addition to training at the United Nations in multilateral diplomacy. He has been posted to Colombo.

There were vacant positions both in Paris and Nairobi, Kenya, (a multilateral station). The Paris position, which was for a third secretary, was instead upgraded to accommodate Dr Ijaz, presently director personnel, as counsellor.

The personnel directorate is interestingly charged with working out both overseas and headquarters postings.

Besides Mr Ahmed, another officer trained in French language Amir Saeed, presently assistant director at the spokesperson’s office, was also available for posting in France.

Meanwhile, the Kenya slot went to Ahsan Mumtaz, an ex-cadre officer, who had no language or multilateral training and hasn’t served at a political desk in the Foreign Office. This is Mr Mumtaz’s second overseas posting, having previously served at Mauritius, something unusual for ex-cadre officers, who get only one foreign assignment.

Be it ambassadorial postings or officer level assignments, those serving in the personnel directorate, always get their way. Ali Haider Altaf, another director in the personnel directorate, has been posted to Berlin again on a position that had to be upgraded for him. Mr Altaf, whose previous overseas assignment was in Brazil, has been trained in Japanese language.

But a young officer Muhammad Shakeb, now serving on South East Asia and Pacific desk as an assistant director and who had received training in German language, would go to Kazakhstan.

How German language would help Mr Shakeb in Kazakhstan or how Mr Altaf would overcome the German handicap while in Berlin is something for the personnel directorate and FO bosses to explain.

In yet another example, Shah Nazar Afridi, trained in Arabic, would serve in Kathmandu.

While most of the young officers are being sent to lesser stations, intriguingly ex-cadre officers are getting more important capitals. Just like Mr Mumtaz, posted to Kenya — an important African posting — another ex-cadre officer Nadeem Bhatti has been posted to Tokyo.

It appears as if the Foreign Office pays no attention to language skills and the purpose they can serve.

Locally hired staff in missions abroad no doubt provide valuable backup, but are no substitute for Pakistanis who could communicate in local language. Furthermore, by not having diplomats who could speak local language, gives impression to the hosts that we don’t take them seriously.

Therefore, clearly the problem is not with the policy. The problem is rather the way the FO handles the human resources, which has been indisputably the most inefficiently handled of the departments at the FO.

Ballpark figure of the amount the Foreign Office spends on one-year language training of a young diplomat is Rs2 million to Rs2.5 million, which includes a monthly allowance of $1,700, an equal amount as rent ceiling for residential accommodation, course fee and travel expenditures.

The choice of language for training from a basket of about 10 languages is voluntary.

The world over foreign language training for diplomats is given pursuant to overseas assignments, which means they cannot get a foreign language training course until they are actually assigned to a language-designated job overseas.

Expecting someone to maintain their skills in a foreign language after at least five years — a three year stint at an unrelated station and a subsequent posting at the headquarters — is probably asking them a lot.

But at FO, where merit matters the least and patronage is the only route to prized postings, such a debate looks whimsical. To prove how patronage is important for an officer’s career, just remember a recently posted officer, who had not been allowed to join mission at the UN by the permanent representative because of attitude problems. But he was accommodated in Washington by creating an additional position.

__________________
Doing your best means never stop trying !!

Language training farce at Foreign Office

By Baqir Sajjad Syed
30th of June, 2011.

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office is clearly lost in translation.Every year, it imparts foreign language training, essential for effective diplomacy, to about 20 young diplomats but then forgets to post the trained officers in regions where that language is spoken. Instead they are sent to places where their language may even be irrelevant.

The result is not only loss of millions spent on the language training of those officers, but the country also loses an opportunity to properly understand what is being said around the globe and express its position on issues critical to it.

Let’s take a quick survey of the latest posting plan for third secretaries to get an idea of the confusion that is prevalent.

Afaq Ahmed, currently assistant director on Kashmir desk, had been trained in French language in addition to training at the United Nations in multilateral diplomacy. He has been posted to Colombo.

There were vacant positions both in Paris and Nairobi, Kenya, (a multilateral station). The Paris position, which was for a third secretary, was instead upgraded to accommodate Dr Ijaz, presently director personnel, as counsellor.

The personnel directorate is interestingly charged with working out both overseas and headquarters postings.

Besides Mr Ahmed, another officer trained in French language Amir Saeed, presently assistant director at the spokesperson’s office, was also available for posting in France.

Meanwhile, the Kenya slot went to Ahsan Mumtaz, an ex-cadre officer, who had no language or multilateral training and hasn’t served at a political desk in the Foreign Office. This is Mr Mumtaz’s second overseas posting, having previously served at Mauritius, something unusual for ex-cadre officers, who get only one foreign assignment.

Be it ambassadorial postings or officer level assignments, those serving in the personnel directorate, always get their way. Ali Haider Altaf, another director in the personnel directorate, has been posted to Berlin again on a position that had to be upgraded for him. Mr Altaf, whose previous overseas assignment was in Brazil, has been trained in Japanese language.

But a young officer Muhammad Shakeb, now serving on South East Asia and Pacific desk as an assistant director and who had received training in German language, would go to Kazakhstan.

How German language would help Mr Shakeb in Kazakhstan or how Mr Altaf would overcome the German handicap while in Berlin is something for the personnel directorate and FO bosses to explain.

In yet another example, Shah Nazar Afridi, trained in Arabic, would serve in Kathmandu.

While most of the young officers are being sent to lesser stations, intriguingly ex-cadre officers are getting more important capitals. Just like Mr Mumtaz, posted to Kenya — an important African posting — another ex-cadre officer Nadeem Bhatti has been posted to Tokyo.

It appears as if the Foreign Office pays no attention to language skills and the purpose they can serve.

Locally hired staff in missions abroad no doubt provide valuable backup, but are no substitute for Pakistanis who could communicate in local language. Furthermore, by not having diplomats who could speak local language, gives impression to the hosts that we don’t take them seriously.

Therefore, clearly the problem is not with the policy. The problem is rather the way the FO handles the human resources, which has been indisputably the most inefficiently handled of the departments at the FO.

Ballpark figure of the amount the Foreign Office spends on one-year language training of a young diplomat is Rs2 million to Rs2.5 million, which includes a monthly allowance of $1,700, an equal amount as rent ceiling for residential accommodation, course fee and travel expenditures.

The choice of language for training from a basket of about 10 languages is voluntary.

The world over foreign language training for diplomats is given pursuant to overseas assignments, which means they cannot get a foreign language training course until they are actually assigned to a language-designated job overseas.

Expecting someone to maintain their skills in a foreign language after at least five years — a three year stint at an unrelated station and a subsequent posting at the headquarters — is probably asking them a lot.

But at FO, where merit matters the least and patronage is the only route to prized postings, such a debate looks whimsical. To prove how patronage is important for an officer’s career, just remember a recently posted officer, who had not been allowed to join mission at the UN by the permanent representative because of attitude problems. But he was accommodated in Washington by creating an additional position.

__________________
Doing your best means never stop trying !!

Planning wizard V.A. Jafarey passes away


KARACHI, June 29: V.A. Jafarey, who died in Karachi on Tuesday, was one of the first entrants in Pakistan’s administrative service recruited through a merit-based competitive system a year after independence.

Like most others then joining the front-ranking Civil Service of Pakistan or CSP (later split into three vocational groups by Z.A. Bhutto), he started his career as deputy commissioner of Montgomery (now Sahiwal).

Unimpressed by the authority, glamour and perks of the post, he soon shifted to the drab secretariat corridors not to leave for the remaining 35 years of his service.

In course of time he emerged as the country’s leading planning and finance specialist. Very few had the distinction of rising to the top in both fields.

He became governor of the State Bank, deputy chairman of the planning commission and secretary general of the ministry of finance. In between he also served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the European Union at Brussels.

After retirement he had two short stints as adviser to prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Advising politicians was not his forte. That was to be hardly a befitting denouement for an illustrious professional career.

Mr Jafarey will be remembered as a civil servant of high calibre who was always modest and ready to help his junior colleagues. Pakistan’s public service even in its heyday did not produce many civil servants in the image of VA – as he was affectionately known. Now that the administration and economy both are required to serve political ends, the chances are even bleaker. The talented youth are increasingly joining the private sector and independent professions or emigrating for better prospects and security.

The death of Mr Jafarey and depleting cadres of the two generations of civil servants he spanned should awaken the political leaders to the absurdity and hazards of their policy of arbitrary nominations, promotions and dismissals.

Earlier they revert to the rule of law and merit better it would be for them and for the country.

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Doing your best means never stop trying !!