ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The International Crisis Group has said that the devolution plan of former president Pervez Musharraf was aimed at weakening the civil service’s elite district management group (DMG) and paving way for the army to take over administrative powers at every level.

Targeting the DMG was also an attempt to capitalise on a division within the civilian bureaucracy in order to expand direct military control over administration, the ICG Asia said in a report, Devolution in Pakistan: Reform or regression.

It said that the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) had claimed that concentration of authority, particularly in the office of the deputy commissioner, created the potential for “arbitrariness, incessant delays, mismanagement and corruption in government operations”. But critics said its most significant change was designed to weaken the most-coveted cadre of the civil bureaucracy, which virtually controlled district administration, as well as top tier posts in the provincial and federal governments.

The military’s decision to dilute its authority also resulted partly from strong opposition to the DMG amongst senior police and income tax officers, who occupied key posts in Gen (retd) Musharraf’s secretariat, the report said.

It quoted an NRB document as saying: “The civil service is effectively controlled by the DMG. The group has close relations with international donors… Other groups in the public administration chafe under the control of one group and would welcome a democratisation of civil service structure as a basic element of reform. The end of the domination of the bureaucracy by one group is a necessary pre-condition for the attainment of administrative power by the army and the creation of conditions for national reconstruction.”

Following the 1999 coup, the military swiftly put its own people into key civil service institutions in the name of reducing corruption, introducing accountability and monitoring government, the report said. About 3,500 military people were inserted into civilian bodies at the national, provincial, divisional and district levels as “army monitoring reams,” which promoted official abuse and belied the official rhetoric of citizens’ empowerment and devolution of power, it said.

According to the report, the local government plan was to be applied to the four provinces but not to 41 largely civilian-populated cantonments in towns and major cities, which would remain under the control of military station commanders. The areas were run under the Cantonment Act of 1924, which vested statutory control to the army. Even freedom of movement was often severely restricted in cantonments by military checkpoints, it said.

Similarly, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) were not included in the devolution system, although this was left open for future review.

Opposition from tribal leaders was cited as the main reason but critics said the federal government’s traditional aversion to public participation in the strategic border region played a part. The federal capital territory was also left out.

The group gave several recommendations, including placing the Local Government Ordinance before each provincial government for review; holding local government elections on a party basis, with direct polls for district officials; and refraining from imposing political discipline on local officials and misusing them for political ends; reducing the number of federal ministries exercising control over local governments; and devolving administrative and fiscal powers to local units and increasing allocations for development, especially in poorer districts.

It also recommended expediting the formation and operation of district, provincial and national safety commissions and police complaints authorities.