THE Planning Commission is a financial and public policy development institution of the Government of Pakistan. It undertakes research studies and state policy development initiatives for the growth of national economy and the expansion of the public and state infrastructure of the country in tandem with the Ministry of Finance.

Since 1952, the commission has had a major influence and role in formulating five-year plans for the national economy for most of the 20th century in Pakistan. It has central role to manage Pakistan’s socio-economic development in a strategic and sustainable manner.

It has passed throuhg an evolutionary phase when a drastic paradigm change was made in its morphology. Instead of provincial government BPS-20/21 officers, members of Planning Commission were hired from open market in MP-1 scale (with monthly emoluments PKR 1 million) with the objective of introducing professionals of extra-ordinary calibre and repute within the edifice of the Planning Commission conforming to its mandate of being a think tank for the government.

The restructuring process was started in 2007 which was further revamped in 2013. But a perusal of performance of the Planning Commission in the last 10 years (from 2007 to-date) reveals lousy and suboptimal performance by the members of this esteemed body. They have been unable to provide leadership in planning and developing economic and development programme.

They have been unable to establish and implement an approach to strengthen partnerships and coordinate efforts to formulate and achieve development objectives, and plans to ensure efficiency in performance. They were required to identify sectors lacking adequate portfolio for development but they kept on moving with the whims of line departments.

I request the deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission to get conducted a third party evaluation of the performance of members of the planning commission and undertake reform measures to enhance efficiency.

Ahmad Kamal
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018