Civil Services Reforms and the PTI Government

• Published in: Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan 2021-06, Vol.58 (2), p.98
• Main Authors: Bashir, Muhammad Mutaher, Malik, Rahat Zubair
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Consumers; Consumption; Credit cards; Packaging; Payments; Pleasure; Prices; Profits; Prone; Psychological aspects; Retail stores; Shopping
• ISSN: 0034-5431

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) government decided to reform the civil services to ensure de-politicisation and better service delivery to the common people. It is not the first time that an incumbent government announced to take such an initiative. Rather, one notices that it is recurrent phenomenon in the history of Pakistan and not without good reasons. Civil Services, indeed, any institution, need to adapt itself with changing times. As soon as an institution loses the touch of reality, it becomes irrelevant and dysfunctional. Thus, reforms are necessary for proper dispensing of the desired functions of any institutions. However, reforms require both sufficient understanding of the past, adequate grasp of the present conditions and foresight to envisage unfolding of the future events. Civil services of Pakistan went through reform process for many times, yet the quality of public services delivery deteriorated after each reforms program. The reason is quite simple; with exception of reforms introduced by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and for some time Musharraf's, all other reforms, not favorable to certain cadres in bureaucracy, were either not implemented or resisted by bureaucracy. The incumbent government is keen to make the process of public service delivery smooth and efficient. It believes that civil services in their present condition cannot be relied upon to achieve this goal. Hence, there is need to reform the system. Keeping in mind the past experiences, one becomes wary of reforms and their outcomes and feels compelled to question whether civil services reforms under Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) government are on the right track. If the reforms' process is dejà vu exercise done by the previous governments, it is bound to fail. Any meaningful civil services reforms must address the specialist - generalist question, relation of provincial and All Pakistan Services (APS) and be in harmony with post-18th amendment provincial autonomy. The present paper is an attempt to analyse how far the PTI government is taking steps to reform Civil Services to make the institution work for the benefit of the state and the common people.