Protection being considered for bureaucrats

[ajpirzada]

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: In what would be a giant leap towards good governance in Pakistan, the Pay and Pension Commission has sought constitutional protection for key civilian bureaucrats, including federal secretaries, to save them from being removed, dismissed or demoted without any show cause.

Interestingly, it was not the Pay and Pension Commission’s own initiative rather the issue has been referred to the body by the federal cabinet. If successfully implemented, this would be a major initiative of the present Gilani regime towards the realisation of the dream of good governance because it would help depoliticise the civilian bureaucracy.

The proposed constitutional protection, which was available to the members of the civilian bureaucracy prior to the 1973 Constitution, would secure the civil servants from the present vulnerability where they are prematurely transferred, made OSD (officer on special duty), suspended, dismissed and even demoted without any rhyme and reason and merely for refusing to follow the unlawful dictates of the rulers.

A credible source in the Pay and Pension Commission said that the body, which is presently concluding its recommendations for their submission to the government for implementation, acknowledged that the lack of constitutional protection to the civil servants has led to increase in undue interference in smooth functions of government functionaries, thus badly affecting the performance of the government and deteriorating governance.

The commission, the source said, has also observed that because of political interference in service matters and non-protection of their service and terms, the government servants feel insecure and their power to resist the undue pressure has badly diminished.

“If approved and implemented, it would be a landmark initiative of the present regime towards good governance,” the source said, adding that not only in India but in the United States too, civil servants enjoy such protection.

The Pay and Pension Commission discussed that the section 1 of the constitution of the United States, amended vide fourteenth amendment, provides that no person shall be deprived of his rights without due process of law whereas in India the provision for taking disciplinary action against civil servants is also provided in Article 311 of the Indian constitution.

During the administrative reforms of 1973, constitutional safeguards were removed for being considered continuation of colonial era. Both the 1956 as well as the 1962 constitutions contained safeguard for the civil servants, which had enabled bureaucracy to stay neutral and emerge as an effective institution, which is vital for any state and serves as its backbone.

Under the 1962 constitution, members of the All-Pakistan Service or of the civil service of the centre or of a province, or who held a civil post in connection with the affairs of the centre or of a province, could not be dismissed or removed from service, or reduced in rank, by an authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed unless that subordinate authority has been expressly empowered to do so by an authority not so subordinate. The government servants were also safeguarded from being dismissed or removed from service, or be reduced in rank unless they were given a reasonable opportunity of showing cause against the action proposed to be taken with respect to them.

However, such a constitutional protection was not available to those civil servants who were dismissed, removed, or demoted on the ground of conduct which had led to their conviction, entailing imprisonment, on a criminal charge or where any authority empowered to dismiss or remove a person from service, or to reduce a person in rank, considered that, in the circumstances of the case, it is not practicable to give to the person an opportunity of showing cause or that it would be prejudicial to the security of Pakistan for the person to be given such an opportunity.

Protection being considered for bureaucrats

 

[ajpirzada]

dont you guys find this interesting enough for a debate?

Good? this is gud in a way that officers will be able to take a stand against political intervention and orders they find not valid.
Bad? at the same time it may provide them more powers to exploit their position. any such corruption can be controlled by NAB but how much effective has NAB been in controlling it in the past

indian members can also contribute by telling us if this law has achieved desired results in india or only increased red tapes

 

[sparklingway]

NAB will have powers to prosecute them. The move has been proposed dozens of times before as well but nobody took the initiative b/c it strips them from being able to use the bureaucrats for their own greedy purposes.

Really nice imitative. I hope the senior bureaucrats work with a renewed devotion after this.

Hats off to Dr. Ishrat Hussain !

 

[sparklingway]

dont you guys find this interesting enough for a debate?

This does not contain hate speech and does not involve bashing political parties or praising military rulers. Hardly any interesting material for many people on this forum

 

[ajpirzada]

lolz.. do you suggest i should post a video of zaid hamid somewhere in the middle?

didnt know this has been suggested before as well. will be great if this happens. this will make them stop worryin about their posts and concentrate on work. i hope new accountability law is passed soon

 

[Pksecurity]

Constitutional protection to civil servants was taken away by ZAB to pave way for his reign of tyranny. The politicians do not want to revive it because protected civil servants will refuse to facilitate corrupt practices of the politicians. A detailed analysis is available at: Constitutional protection to civil servants; the only panacea for efficient and corruption-free governance… « The Passive Voices

 

[mdcp]

Boot out everybody if they dont show progress or involve in corruption, there should be federal law for all people emplyed in Pakistan not one for beucrate and for others different, we should setup nice labour court and seperate labour laws according to modern business environment

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

In America if you haven't paid Federal Income Taxes even for 1 year or had to have an extension they will be no way for you to EVER hold a public office.

If this law protects competent officials then by all means go for it; but stay aware that there will always be that corrupt A$$hole who will get his job done 1 way or another.

 

[keeninterest]

A time bound tenure is a definite good initiative, part of administrative reforms that one would refer to. This is something that needs to be done across the board, not just to certain key civil bureaucracy. This does help in depoliticize the bureaucracy, better understanding developed on part of the concerned bureaucrat so that he can maneuver his way on implementation and in the process fine tune the system that one refers to.

A more important administrative reform I would imagine is time bound completion of work, be that clearing of a file to clearing of funds to project implementation to much more, and if the assigned work is not being completed, work out on means to either get it done or some sort of action be initiated.

The other, bring about a complete transparency in the functioning of the bureaucracy. Why a certain action has been initiated, why was something not done, how did the process take place, pretty much the complete ins and outs and all these need to be answered to who so ever may seek to know the reasons behind.

Another key is accountability. A lot of times a lot of things go haywire, but we generally do not know on whom to pin the blame, so it gets very important that at each step accountability is ascertained, and if something doesn’t go as per laid guidelines, timelines, etc, the concerned person be held accountable, and if a bureaucrat doesn’t take action on the basis of fear of accountability, you are better off without such a person.

Bring in all round reforms, else on the face of it this reform sounds good, but there remains every chance that it will be misused to hijack the process. And as Mr Pirzada said, people need to debate these issues, develop an understanding for these issues because it is here where the system really delivers, not so much at the political level. If one can develop an efficient bureaucracy, politicians wont be able to take the country on a trip as keeps happening so many times otherwise, on the contrary with all round reforms, be those only administrative to begin with, even a politician will remain within limits.