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Major restructuring plan approved for bureaucrats by bureaucrats

Friday, February 15, 2008

ISLAMABAD: The Secretaries Committee on Wednesday endorsed a major Civil Service restructuring plan that recommends the creation of new services at federal, provincial and district levels but the idea of abolishing certain existing groups and cadres has been referred to the concerned authorities.

The civil bureaucracy’s top body also constituted a sub-committee under the secretary information to decide the future role of the Information Ministry and to ascertain if it needed to be renewed on modern lines and be run by media professionals instead of information officers inducted through a Civil Service competition.

Dr Ishrat Hussain, Chairman National Commission on Government Reforms (NCGR), whose recommendations were discussed and endorsed by the committee, told this correspondent that media had today grown as a much specialised area for which there was perhaps a need for specialised media men in the Information Ministry instead of information officers. He said that the information ministry could not remain stagnant and it had to restructure itself on modern lines.

The NCGR recommended the abolition of the groups/services like Pakistan Railways Services, the Pakistan Postal Service, Commerce and Trade Group, and Information Group. The Information Group's fate has been linked to the findings of the sub-committee.

The fate of the Postal Service and the Pakistan Railways, the Secretaries Committee recommended, should be left for the management board of the Pakistan Post and the future Railways Corporation to decide. In case of commerce and trade group, the commerce secretary argued that the commerce ministry was aspiring to continue with this group at least for the time being.

The proposals concerning the creation of three All-Pakistan Services, including National Executive Service (NES), Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) (new version of District Management Group), and Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) have been endorsed. Similarly, the secretaries committee seconded the proposed federal services, including Pakistan Foreign Services (PFS), Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service (PAAS), and Pakistan Taxation Service with two cadres for Customs and Inland Revenue (PTS). The proposed All Pakistan Services and the Federal Services would replace all the existing services/cadres of the Central Superior Services.

At the provincial level, the committee agreed for the creation of Provincial Management Service (PMS), Provincial Executive Service (PES), Provincial Technical or Professional Service (PTS) and Provincial Judicial Service (PJS). At the district level, the NCGR proposed and the committee endorsed the creation of the District Executive Service.

About the All Pakistan Service – the National Executive Service (NES) along with the Provincial Executive Service (PES), the committee endorsed that these services would be constituted for each province for filling in senior positions (Grade 20-22) in the Federal/Provincial Secretariat and other identified select key positions in other attached departments/ autonomous bodies/ corporations.

The NES/PES will be open to all existing officers serving the government and also to the professionals from outside, meeting certain eligibility criteria. Regional/Provincial quotas for recruitment to the NES will address the complaints of smaller provinces for non-representation at Secretary/Additional Secretary levels in the federal government.

Dr Ishrat Hussain said that these recommendations of his commission as endorsed by the secretaries committee would now be placed before the high-level steering committee that comprises the president, the prime minister and the provincial chief ministers once the new governments were in place after the upcoming Feb 18th elections.

Hussain said that a transition plan would be made to successfully replace the present civil service structure with the recommended one and this would only be possible with political backing and with the fullest support of all the stakeholders.


The News