The perversion of power and patronage remains the hall-mark of politicians in Islamabad. Unsecured bank loans, debt write-offs, discretionary land-grants, favouritism in awarding lucrative contracts — the list of prevalent transgressions in government is endless. Realistically speaking, though, we can learn to live with some of these corruptions, albeit uneasily, give or take certain limits.
However, when politicians try to encroach upon the rights of the state — as, for example, when they insist upon the right to recommend people for jobs in the public sector — they do irreparable damage to the structures on which civil society rests. Not only should diverse organs of the state be politically bipartisan, it is expected that recruitment to the administration will be based on transparent merit and academic qualification only.
Politicians, as past experience demonstrates so vividly, have been singularly inept at this task of nation and state-building. Previous regimes have flouted the rules of government with impunity, stuffing the lower and middle echelons of the executive with undesirable or unsuitable elements. Even under the present regime, despite an avowed ban on recruitments into the administration until now, there has been an insidious seepage of political favourites into certain public departments, most notoriously in the police in Punjab and Sindh.
Mr Hamid Nasir Chatha is a sensible, upright man who is reported to advocate healthy government policies. He correctly believes that all recruitments into government service — whether provincial or federal — above grade 10 should be entrusted exclusively to the various autonomous Public Service Commission (PSCs) set up for this purpose. Only the best suited and most capable men and women should do in public service, he says.
The Chatha Committee has already effected this policy in the federal government but is faced with stiff opposition in the Punjab where dishonest politicians are not prepared to relinquish their most important source of power and patronage.
At present, recruitment into the senior echelons of the provincial bureaucracies (Grades 16 and above) are in the hands of the provincial PSCs which ensure that only qualified persons can be accepted .However, entry into the lower grades 11 to 15 — which includes pivotal posts in the police, customs, excise, food etc — are outside their domain. The problem is that it is precisely in these areas where massive infection and favouritism exist to corrode the foundations of the state.
Politicians will naturally insist upon retaining their privileges of largesse. They would like to be able to stuff their own people into these posts, irrespective of merit or their suitability for the job. In other words, they would like to perpetuate a hugely malevolent and thoroughly inefficient system of local government which hurts us all.
How can this be allowed? We have seen the disastrous consequences of this practice as it has undermined government in Sindh and Punjab. We have seen, for example, how such appointments to the police can influence the results of elections and how they can become an obvious source of harassment for political opponents of those in power.
Mr Chathas, we understand, has been able to persuade all provinces except Punjab to allow the provincial PSCs to take charge of recruitments to grades 11 and above. Mr Ghulam Hyder Wyne is apparently not strong enough to resist the pressure of his MPs. If Mr Wyne refuses to heed Mr Chatha’s advice, the other provinces too may be expected to backtrack and follow the ruinous path of Punjab.
At stake in the province of Punjab in grades 10 to 15 are approximately 65,000 jobs this year. For each vacancy, there are at least 400 applicants. If merit and academic qualification are to be ruled out as acceptable criteria because the Punjab PSC is excluded from vetting the applications, there will be continuing havoc in local government. There is nothing more distasteful or damaging to the state than unscrupulous politicians vying to promote the most unsuitable candidate in their constituency.
We simply cannot afford such forms of state-corruption any more. Law and order are in a shambles and citizens have been abandoned by the state. And all because our ruling politicians are bent upon perpetuating themselves in power.
It is our right as citizens to be provided with good, clean and efficient government where it matters to all of us. If Mr Chatha can think of providing it in Islamabad, which is another country, the very least Mr Wyne can do is to try and provide it in Punjab which we live. The same logic holds for the other provinces. For that to happen, the provincial PSCs should be empowered to do the groundwork in selecting all those thousands of public-servants around whom the lives of ordinary citizens revolve. This is one easily enforceable measure which can strengthen the social contract between the state and its people. It is now up to Mr Wyne to prove that he is as well-meaning and concerned about the welfare of his provincial subjects as he claims to be.