THIS is apropos the article ‘A little respect’ (July 11) by Mr Tasneem Noorani. Looking askance, the writer has attributed the decline in the civil service to whimsical policies by political bosses to the extent that even the chief secretaries and establishment secretaries have been rendered ineffective.

All this may be true, but this weaves only one side of the fabric. The other side is that if senior officers feel administratively smothered by the undue influence, why don’t they take up the matter jointly with the political bosses? And if they do not pay heed, they should honourably quit to set the example for their juniors who are desperately groping in the dark in search of role models of honesty, integrity and grace.

One or two such resignations will create a ripple effect to force political bosses to change the way they deal with the bureaucracy. But since there are a large number self-serving empty cans lined up to serve and undergo ignominious treatment at the hands of political bosses ad nauseam without any plausible reason, no one should expect a motivated, directed and buoyed-up junior lot.

M.H. Chohan

Lahore

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2014