THE many ills that plague Pakistan are often blamed on the shortage of resources, including trained manpower and funds. What does one say, then, when both are available and yet the bureaucracy's good intentions are negated by mismanagement and lack of planning? This was the question raised when, as reported by this newspaper on Thursday, it came to light that the Foreign Office spends millions of rupees on imparting foreign language training to young diplomats but then often fails to send them to missions where that language would be useful. A single one-year language training course for a young diplomat costs the FO an estimated Rs2m. Despite the significant cost at which this training comes, however, there have been a number of instances where a candidate trained in, for example, the French language, is posted to a country where it is not spoken. This newspaper's report gave several examples of such mismatches. In some cases, patronage politics and nepotism seem to be involved.

There are a number of dimensions to this issue. First, and very obviously, there is the matter of wasted funds that ultimately come from taxpayers. Given the cash-strapped circumstances of the exchequer, the wastage of funds in this manner cannot be condoned. Then, there is the matter of Pakistan's image in countries where linguistically ill-equipped persons are posted, and the opportunities for gaining information that are lost. By not matching up the right person with the right mission, Pakistan sends out the signal that FO postings are an ad hoc matter and not one of careful calculation as they ought to be. Given that the FO does have a language training programme, limited reliance should be placed on locally hired staff at foreign missions. If such mismatching cannot be curtailed, the FO should save the money.