Hello colleagues..ur comments are invited about the latest article appearing in a local daily abt Bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy feels humiliated, frustrated

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: "They treat us like dogs," this is how one of the top federal secretaries sums up the civilian bureaucracy's present state of affairs vis-a-vis its relation with the ruling elite.

He had once uttered the same words at a high-level meeting. Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiani in his last press conference revealed that he was also told by a senior bureaucrat that "bureaucrats were treated like dogs".

Background interviews with members of the civil bureaucracy, including federal secretaries, over the recent premature resignation of an additional secretary (BS-21), show that the government servants were perhaps never so dejected and disappointed as they are today.

Bureaucrats cite the case of grade 21 officer and Additional Secretary Ministry of Education Javed Nizam, who still had more than two years of service left but prematurely retired from the government service on July 16, 2006. Announcing his premature retirement, he had written to his colleagues in the civil service that he was hanging his boots for not being satisfied with the bureaucracy's working. "I feel no hesitation in saying that we civil servants have collectively failed to come up to the expectations of the "subjects". Certainly, some external factors too must share the blame for this malaise," he said.

According to Nizam's colleagues, the officer was wronged repeatedly for speaking his mind. One of his colleagues told this correspondent that the officer was lately upset because one of his political bosses was too rude towards the bureaucracy.

Commenting on the officer's premature exit, a federal secretary who is also member of the high-powered central selection board, told this correspondent that the working environment for the bureaucracy has never been so bad as it is today.

He said that in the past there were instances where even mid-career officers used to say "no" to the unlawful dictates of the rulers and even rejected proposals that in their view were not in the larger public interest. "Today there exists nothing of the sort," the secretary said, adding that today bureaucracy is treated like personal servants.

Another officer referred to the recent case of Saira Karim, the former senior joint secretary law, who was reportedly victimized by her minister after she had refused to dance to the tunes of his political boss. Karim, who initially faced a probed, was later transferred out of the ministry.

Referring to the case of Dr Aleem Mehmood, former secretary social welfare, a joint secretary said that bureaucracy has been given the message that they have to follow the dictates, whether legal or illegal, of their political bosses if they have to survive.

Mehmood was made OSD in May 2005 after he differed with his minister on the appointment of an expensive consultant. Dr Aleem Mehmood was also "accused" of telling his minister that the latter was misusing official vehicles and also had personal staff far more than what was authorized under the law. "Today after the lapse of over 14 months, Dr Aleem continues to be an OSD," the joint secretary said, wondering how many bureaucrats would want to be in Aleem's position.

The treatment being meted out to the former secretary social welfare, it is said, has made many bureaucrats coward.

Quoting an example, a source said that a federal secretary was made to pay Rs 60,000 mobile phone bill by his minister. Though the minister had exceeded his mobile bill ceiling many times, he insisted his secretary to pay the bill no matter how and from where. The said secretary told a colleague that he followed his minister's direction to avoid displacement. The recent transfer of the country's Chief Economist, who is a BS-22 officer, to a post- Chief Enercon- which in the past has been offered to BS-20 officer, is too seen as humiliation of the officer who had differed with his bosses on poverty figures.

A federal secretary claims to have seen a re-employed BS-21 officer weeping in his office for facing the kind of pressure to do unlawful things. The re-employed officer, it is said, admitted before the visiting secretary that the life of a retired officer working on extension is really painful and those offering the extension expect every dictate of theirs to be followed.

Bashing of a finance ministry joint secretary by his political boss was yet another recent awful shock for the bureaucracy. Many in the bureaucracy wonder if there would ever be any improvement in the working environment for the civil bureaucracy. Some in the bureaucracy expect miracles from the recently constituted Dr Ishrat Hussain-led national commission on civil service reforms.

salam dears,

its not new thng...........v should b very much informed about such thngs and should b well integrated and organised to tackle such thngs..........dont get depressed by these its part of the game..........uknw how much integrated v r CSA HAS YET TO B STARTED BUT uknw our friends from nwfp and FATA r well associated wid each others...........
during CSA v would enlarge our circle wid folds of friends from punjab,sindh and offcourse baluchistan.......AJK.
this country is not made for ARMY to rule.........if they wna rule n reality they should learn to rule the indians not thier own countrymen............PAKISTAN z made for ppl,its based on democracy and i hope that v would b able to strenghten it wid democracy n future..............
ITS SHAMFUL THAT today v find army men every deptt.........is it only army men that r capable of handling thngs???they have damaged every institution and time z riped to show them doors..........
ARMY HAS 2 THNGS TO DO
1)TO DEFEND COUNTRY'S FRONTIERS
2)TO EXPAND IT

OFFCOURSE v r not a country that wna expand borders rather v like to defend our self...........thts wht army should do.........
THERE Z NO PLACE FOR BOOTS IN OUR POLITICS.....I HOPE THAT DAYS R COMING VN THEY WOULD B KEPT N BARACKS

DONT FEEL WEAK UR CIVIL SERVENT OF PAKISTAN..........AND V(JUNIORS AND SENIORS) ALL R WID U SAYING SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME TO THOSE WHO DONT KNW THE WORTH OF BUREAUCRATS....
ITS THEM who run the country not the ANGOTA CHAAP MINISTERS....
WHO COME TO power with riging and malpractices.....and wht to say of these days Ministers LOTAAAS and NAB ZADAAZ........DEFAULTERS WID NO STANDARDS.....v r ashamed of them......the whole regime has no footings.
so wht to speak of them........they may b called educated JAHIL loog.

v knw the worth of politicians here n our countrylate zia said very rightly(MERY IK ISHARY PE YE LOOG DHUM HELATY HUEY AYENGE MEREY PAAS)

i salute to those who suffered and sacrificed for this country...wether thats our female senior CSP or male senior bureaucrats.....i salute all of them.ur starts of our country and v will keep ur examples alive.

ITS OUR COUNTRY AND V WOULD MAKE ITS DESTINY WID OUR SACRIFICES.NO ONE Z ALLOWED TO PLAY WID RULES N REGULATIONS OF THIS LAND OF PIOUS.

thnks

aamer khattak

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[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Engineer Aamer Khattak[/FONT]

humm .. the situation is really bad here in balochistan civil servants are also suppressed by the Nazims and these people and the devolution plan has made civil beureaucracy of very low caliber.

The civil servants who are selected through Balochistan public service commssion like Section officers and other Asst commissioners are sick of there jobs and they see the federal services as good one and tension free but seeing this situation it is quite clear that both in faderal and prvisional csp's are in trouble.

AOA

its a matter of fact that such situations are prevailing in the country, but brother abdul aamer dont blame army for the wrong only. the politicians are equally or better to say majorly involved in the havoc. most army personnel are inducted in the civil services under specified quota since long and they equaly do good being a civil servant as they were doing being military personnel. it is commendable that proposed probationers of FATA/NWFP are in contact and the circle would increase in the CSA, by such strong cooperation in right direction, for socio-economic uplift of the country, insha ALlah our future could b a prosperous one

dont worry brother (Mian Afnan Alam) as depicted by abdul Aamer, you pple can come up with the strong ever-lasting relations of mutual cooperation in CSA

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'Thee woh ik shakhs kay tasawar saay - abb woh ranayee khayal kahaan'

salam dear sir,

its sure not only army but our so called leaders of this country has played wid this country.........im not blaming army only.....
its not blame only its fact and reality that these ppl deviated from thier constitutional lines.....IF U TRUST SOME ONE AND GIVE HIM MORE RESPECT AND THE SAME PERSON CHEATS U THEN FINGER SHOULD B POINTED AT HIM IST THEN COMES OTHER.

SO FOR induction n civil services r concernd so i thnk they r inducted here to thro back doors wid no tests they only go thro nominal intervws........and i knw very well that these r those army men who army dont wna accept n their ranks they just utalized them here n civil service to get hold of country.there should b no quota of army n civil service as the name indicates its civil service not army service....these seats should b given to smaller provinces or allocated on merit basis only.

politicians r also responsble for sad situation of country but they r 3rd class ppl and one cant expect them extra thngs for pakistan.........v all knw their worth very wel.....DOGS WAVIng TAILS VN ever
REQUIRED BY power circles.

sure v would work for this country coz v r leaving very handsom pays for civil service........at least 15 ppl i knw who vr geting more than 60000 pay and they would join us n CSA.....so time z coming vn civil institutions would gain strength n real sense..........


thnks

aamer khattak

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[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Engineer Aamer Khattak[/FONT]

Its really pathetic to c our worthy civil servants being dealt and dwarfed as such...But after all,we are still a third rate nation of the third world and our present n wd b civil servants shu'nt expect 'em to b treated ike all-in-all here by the power-mongers.

Anyways,its horrendous, and needs to be rectified.
maa salam

Let us just say we are a developing country with a nation that allows itself to be ruled by anyone who has a bigger "laathi" (i'm sure you know who those have been for the past 2+ centuries); and has yet to learn to be civilised, to be able to decide what is good for the collective whole. So, my point being, the fault lies not within our stars ( be it one star, two three or four stars), but in ourselves.

Thus, in order to cease being a third rate nation of a third world country, as so eloquently put by Ms. Khan, a significant number amongst us must sacrifice personal gains for the greater good.

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Chance favors the prepared mind.

u know reading sumthing like this always makes me wonder if i want to be an officer who will have to do the bidding of the political cartoons who call themselves our leaders.........the fact that ive argued for with my family and so many others is that if we ourselves become afraid of the situation then who will rectify it? who will take the stand of not us? i hope to be an officer sumday and i will make a difference this is my pledge to my brothers and sisters here and evrywhere who read this.............

to read such a thing and criticize the government is wrong to for they will work for their own end.............the devolution plan when it was announced 5 years ago was thought to be the best thing that could happen.........but it was not and never will be, when u put power into the hands of illiterate half breeds who have fake graduation degrees then u can rest assured that they will run amok, and play with the nations future,

i personally know a nazim who has a fake degree and whos yearly allotment of medical supplies for his region is squandered by him and his hench men..........and to show the world how nice and pure he is he has an office setup where there is an outer shelf with the medicines displayed....................which by the way are expired almost a year ago.....................so my friends to be able to do sumthing we need to sit down and think hard for wat sort of a country we want to leave our children, or be cowards and run away like so many others.