FRIENDS, and journalists too, some time ask me how as a public servant of 36 years, I had judged the conduct and performance of political leaders. The answer has to be as casual as had been my contact with the politicians – the dealings with them were rarer.

Most politicians never sought to interfere in my work nor, like some other officials, I invited their interference to be on friendly terms with them. My dealings with them were generally marked by the limitation of the rules and code of conduct under which I worked. Most reciprocated in the same manner.

Going back in time, the formidable Nawab of Kalabagh while on a tour invited deputy commissioners and political agents to an informal meal to reveal his intrinsic amiability and understanding of their limitations quite contrary to his public image. He was, perhaps, the last of the feudal chieftains who did not belong to any party nor was he a politician in the conventional mould. President Ayub, too, conveyed his political message in persuasive rather than authoritarian terms.

The line dividing the roles of the politicians and bureaucrats has been blurring over the years. Politicians who do not interfere and bureaucrats who resist interference are now all but extinct. Sadly, both of them, at every level, have learnt to get along with each other often at the cost of the common man who has no easy access to either.

Kunwar Idris

Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016