LAHORE, March 18: The recent notice taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Waheeda Shah case regarding the exploitation of civil servants in the country has given a ray of hope to bureaucracy that can help them wriggle out of the political influence and dare say no to anything illegal.
We have no rights and seek pleasure of the heads of the governments in Islamabad and in provinces to get and maintain postings. The political and other influences have crippled the bureaucracy. These remarks were made by a number of officials in the Punjab government during separate talks with this reporter in the light of the recent notice of the state of affairs of officialdom taken by the Supreme Court in the Waheeda Shah case.
The court had on March 12 last asked the Establishment Division and all chief secretaries to submit comments regarding the rights of the civil servants and suggest ways to protect them.
Right now, a team of provincial officers is pondering over the directed requirement and preparing a reply.
And in the meantime, a number of senior officials who talked to Dawn on this issue spoke their heart out regarding the conditions under which they are working. Significantly they all requested anonymity apparently to avoid ‘annoyance’ of those at the helms of affairs.
The court had in its order observed that “civil servants are bound to follow the lawful orders. It has been noticed that whenever the officers/officials/civil servants follow the lawful orders, they have to face lot of resistance invariably. And several timesthey are humiliated by immediately ordering their transfers from one place to another and posting them as OSDs, initiating baseless proceedings of disciplinary nature against them.
“In as much as, transfer orders are issued by the competent authorities concerned, disallowing them to complete their tenure period, without adhering to the rules and regulations.
“It has also been noticed that frequent transfers, postings and suspensions take place in different departments contrary to the law, rule and regulations,” the court said.
Now, those who often complain of lack of independence to follow rules and regulations in private talks which they insist are “off the record” to avoid wrath of their bosses, look hopeful that the Supreme Court’s mention of their rights is going to supporttheir will to work for the state and the people, rather than the governments of the day.
They say at this time inefficiency, corruption and political influence have crippled the bureaucracy because it has no rights.
Labour and factory laws protect rights of those working in the private sector, determining even their working hours.
But for the civil servants there are no such laws. They perform extraordinary duties like conducting elections or arranging evenpolitical meetings of the government of the day without even overtimes.
The rights of civil servants were dropped in the 1973 Constitution. This led them to seek protection of those in power. Those who follow the path in turn get key postings and are left to misuse powers or funds. Those not following the drill are madeorphans.
Rules of business are the only rules which are made under the Constitution to determine working of government departments, and inter-departmental, inter-provincial or inter-federal government relations.
In Punjab these rules never mentioned the tenure of the civil servants. The vital condition was silently introduced by thebureaucracy in the rules in 2001 while reframing them in the light of the devolution under the 18th Amendment.
It was inserted in the rules Sixth Schedule mentioning four-year tenure for the chief and additional chief secretaries, three years for secretaries, special secretaries, additional secretaries, deputy secretaries, section officers, heads of attached departments,commissioners, DCOs, EDOs and the heads of regional officers.
There was five-year tenure of principals of medical colleges, colleges of community medicines, de’Montmorency College ofDentistry and dean of Post Graduate Medical Institute.
No-one objected to this tenure (which is a part of the rules enacted ever since). But someone quietly added: “The chief minister may extend or curtail the tenure mentioned above” when the summary for approval of the rules was sent to the chief minister’s secretariat. This line, the civil servants say, has defeated the purpose of the mentioned tenure which has never been followed.
The line has generated subservience which could have been avoided by merely adding that the chief minister can curtail the tenure of any officer by “assigning any reason,” if at all someone wanted to make him final authority of the postings.
The civil servants are posted and changed without any reason. And the current permission to MPAs to get officials of their choice transfer and posted has added to the problem. A number of departments have found the system disrupted because of the new spate, and have now appealed to the chief minister to impose a ban on transfers if the government wants them to deliver.
The federal service or the All-Pakistan Service is based on the idea of federalism, maintaining a balance and sanity between the federation and its units. But right now civil servants of these groups are either considered a part of the federal government, or provincialised.
Those dare say no in the federal government are considered ‘enemies’. Those following the same line in provinces get the same treatment and are sidelined or kicked out. Those in Islamabad cannot talk of Punjab’s interest and those in Lahore cannotmention the protection of the rights of the federation despite belonging to the same service of Pakistan.
There is no problem in their training during which they come to know that their duty is keeping the national interest supreme to their own interest or of anybody else so as to ensure the rule of law. But when in field they find it impossible to follow thetraining. Here they learn the art of survival through the pleasure of the bosses, the bureaucrats say.