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THE French poet and essayist Charles Baudelaire, in his marvellous short story The generous gambler, mentions a preacher giving this piece of advice to his audience: “My dear brethren, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist!”
In Pakistan, the ruling elite seem to be in love with the loveliest trick of the devil. The latest instance of pulling it off almost flawlessly is the criterion devised by the Prime Minister’s Office for the selection of press officers to be posted in Pakistan’s foreign missions. According to this formula for the appointment of press officers in foreign missions, a 20pc quota has been set aside for individuals outside the information group cadre, who have had some media experience.
Further, media reports say that in the selection of officers from the information group for positions abroad the weightage given to performance evaluation reports of the previous five years would be 10pc as opposed to 30pc for interviews.
This would essentially mean that the assessment made by superiors who have extensively worked with an individual over a period of five years is considerably less significant than the assessment made by a selection panel that might never have interacted with the individual. If this will not prove to be a classic case of whimsical selection and favouritism then what will?
The government may hand out foreign postings to media men.
Let us see why media persons become the focus of attention when it comes to certain government decisions. Gone are the days when media men could be appeased by a complimentary Haj trip or bullied into subjugation by the threat of legal cases against them. In order to placate the powerful spin doctors of today, something far more subtle is required. Doling out lucrative positions in government organisations to prominent journalists has worked well but at the same time has encountered much criticism for being too brazen.
In such circumstances, the idea emanating from the Prime Minister’s Office is a master stroke. The fact that handpicked beneficiaries would be included in a larger group so that the focus would be off them would help the government steer clear of all criticism as detractors can also be potential beneficiaries provided they stay away from censuring the government.
For many appointees, vanity would play a vital role in convincing them that they deserve these positions due to their stature in the field of journalism and in this way the devil’s greatest trick would be played out.
Now for the reasons why these appointments are wrong. First and foremost, individuals who are not civil servants do not have any long-term stakes in the government. These individuals will enjoy a ‘sabbatical’ abroad at the taxpayer’s expense, and once their stint is over, they would return to rejoin the private sector.
Since profitability is the greatest consideration of all individuals and businesses in the private sector, the individuals concerned are very likely to manipulate the information they would have had access to by way of the privileged position they held. As soon as their stint is over, many among them would cash in by writing books, hosting shows and giving interviews about the details of events at an eventful mission abroad.
Secondly, such appointments will further alienate the already battered civil bureaucracy. The information group is a dedicated service group in which individuals are recruited every year via competitive exams. Only after extensive training spanning more than a year are the selected officers appointed as information officers and public relations officers in various government departments.
Foreign postings are something these officers eagerly look forward to thanks to the international exposure they benefit from and the better perks these entail. Thus, depriving them of their rightful share just to placate a pressure group is neither sensible nor scrupulous.
Policymaking should be done in the greater interest of the country and not to appease a certain community or group that has the means to show the government in a poor light. The recent induction of army officers from Balochistan in the Pakistan Administrative Service and Police Service of Pakistan and the practice of appointing non-career diplomats to ambassadorial assignments are different facets of the same approach.
The bureaucracy does not have canine teeth as do the military, the media and judiciary. Perhaps that is why when it comes to the bureaucracy the government has no reason to fear the long-term consequences of its decision.
On a personal note, the writer feels that by virtue of his regular writings in these
columns, he can be termed a ‘media person’. So, he would not exactly mind landing a coveted position abroad. And if that is a bit far-fetched, a complimentary pilgrimage for yours truly would indeed be a welcome beginning.
The writer is a former civil servant.
Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2014
