The newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan took oath and became the 22nd premier of the country exactly 22 years after launching his political struggle following his retirement as a superstar cricketer. The premiership is not a bed of roses but rather a crown of thorns, keeping in view the challenges, especially related to economy, confronting the new government.
The newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan took oath and became the 22nd premier of the country exactly 22 years after launching his political struggle following his retirement as a superstar cricketer.
The premiership is not a bed of roses but rather a crown of thorns, keeping in view the challenges, especially related to economy, confronting the new government.
In the last five years, Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) gave tough time to the last Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regime and most of the time they opted to go to streets for staging protests, sit-ins, and lockdown of cities to pressurise the government, finally managing to oust Nawaz Sharif through Supreme Court of Pakistan in Panama case.
Now Imran Khan will have to face the same kind of opposition within and outside the Parliament so he will have to do wonders during his honeymoon period of first three to six months.
Meeting the rising and lofty expectations will be the most difficult phase for the PTI-led government which they will have to respond through improved governance. The PTI will have to ensure that its elected members for National Assembly and four provincial assemblies behave to show that they are not above the law of the land.
The governance cannot be improved without the selection of key appointments at all important ministries and departments on merit. The concept of ‘my man’ within the bureaucracy will have to be buried once and for all. The last PML-N led regime had run the bureaucracy by establishing District Management Group-Nawaz (DMG-N) so this newly elected regime will have to avoid making a DMG-PTI and it can only be done by sticking to strict policy of merit and ‘right man for the right job’.
There are major categories in the bureaucracy as some are simultaneously thoroughly corrupt as well as efficient, but it is ironic they use their efficiency to fill their own pockets. The other category consists of those bureaucrats who are honest but lethargic and highly inefficient. These two categories are of no use for the country. Then there is a third category, having a small number of honest and efficient officials, who always remain sidelined mainly because they are not sycophants. It will be a challenge for the PTI-led government to tap that category and appoint those fine functionaries at key positions. This can only be done by punishing the corrupt and rewarding the honest and efficient officers purely on the principles of merit and fair play. This can make a huge difference for achieving good governance in our country.
It will be the litmus test for the incumbent regime Now, the selection of federal and chief ministers, who are willing to appoint the ‘best of the best’ having capability to deliver in most complex and difficult environments, will be the litmus test for the new government.
But if some are rewarded by compromising on merit then it would be a recipe for disaster. Some caretaker ministers are vying to get positions in the newly-elected regime so let’s see how the PTI responds to such wishes.
This will set the tone for the appointments of bureaucrats at key economic ministries/departments such as Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and power sector distribution and generation companies.
The bureaucracy is largely demotivated, because they consider merit, efficiency, and honesty are just bookish topics, whereas networking, influence and political connections are the common norm of the day through which they could excel in their profession. It’s beyond any doubt that the capacity and performance of bureaucracy deteriorated in recent years, mainly because of increasing political intervention and lack of merit. For instance, the government spent multimillion dollars to develop skills of thousands of bureaucrats at the best universities of the world (through scholarships) at the expense of taxpayers’ money but they were never assigned to discharge responsibilities in accordance with their developed skills. The PTI led government can seek information about such officers from Establishment Division and can easily assign them befitting duties.
In order to keep bureaucrats on their toes, why there is no permission for lateral entry into bureaucracy. For all key posts, there must be competitive exams whereby the bureaucrats and everyone having equal level of education and expertise should be allowed to appear in exams and interviews so that best of the best could be selected for all the key positions.
Now the PTI-led government will have to appoint the best bureaucrats as secretaries at Ministry of Finance, Planning, Commerce, Energy Division, Power Division, Statistics, Industries, and others and on top of it the government will have to select a competent individual to chair the FBR as Khan has vowed overhauling the taxation machinery and doubling the revenue collection from Rs4000 billion to Rs8000 billion.
Although, the PTI leaders have started distancing themselves from the tall claims made by Khan but they will have to deliver on this front if they want to remove fiscal woes of the country on a long-term basis.
The appointment of secretary finance and chairman FBR will give clear-cut signal about the direction of the government and how the incumbent regime is going to proceed in the months ahead. So the government will have to show extraordinary care in the selection of the best of the best within or outside the bureaucracy. The appointment of other secretaries including Planning, Energy and Statistics will also be important but the government will have to deliver in the first 100 days on granting full-fledged autonomy to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to get reliable and authentic data on all sectors of economy.
If the PTI-led regime failed to make any difference in first few months then it will be hard for them to materialise “Naya Pakistan” (New Pakistan). But if they succeed then it will not be possible for their opponents to diminish them politically for as long as they continue to deliver.
But the first step towards this direction will be the selection of ‘the right man for the right job’ and if it happens then our motherland’s chances of thriving under good governance will be brighter than ever.
The writer is a staff member
