Abstract
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 déjà vu exercise done by the
previous governments, it is bound to fail. Any meaningful civil services reforms must address the specialistgeneralist 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.
Muhammad Mutaher Bashir, Rahat Zubair Malik. (2021) Civil Services Reforms and the PTI Government, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume-58, Issue-2.
-
Views
849 -
Downloads
84
Article Details
Volume
Issue
Type
Language
