n the aftermath of the 1857 mutiny, the British set up the Indian Civil Service in 1858, to oversee all government activity in British India. The steel frame, as this service came to be known, ruled over the subcontinent’s 300 million subjects from 1858 to the time of independence in 1947.

The service was meant to rule the Indian subjects of the empires, not serve them. It served the emperor or the empress. Initially, the 1,000 officers were all British. They were graduates from top schools in Britain. In time, Indian subjects were also allowed to join the ranks through a strict merit-based process. The objective was to have officers who looked Indian and spoke Indian languages but thought like their British colleagues.

The echoes of the steel frame continue to reverberate long after independence. The Central Superior Service of Pakistan proudly upholds the legacy of the ICS. Despite the clear vision of the country’s founder, who told the officers that they were to be servants, not rulers, the CSS officers continue to rule the citizens of Pakistan while serving the interests of a “ruling elite” organised in the image of its colonial predecessors.

Attempts to reform civil service through dozens of committees and commissions have resulted in inconsequential changes in nomenclature at best. The examination system for recruiting future civil servants is based on needs of olden times. The written examination and the interview assess the cognitive ability of the candidates while aligning the successful ones in different fields based on the marks obtained.

In a way, this examination system is unique. The candidates do not know what they are preparing for until after receiving the results.

Meaningful reform is imperative to make the civil services relevant to the modern-day needs. I have been advocating for over a decade for the abolition of the current structure of a “common” examination and its replacement with “departmental” examinations based on the criteria of “relevance and competence.” This will entail public service commission conducting separate examinations in different fields. The examinations would be given to candidates with relevant academic backgrounds. Each department will then induct successful candidates that satisfy the “relevance and competence” yardstick. In effect, this will create “departmental hierarchies” that will provide trainings and career paths to groom the candidates into specialists.

It will perhaps be straightforward to accomplish this in most of the almost dozen existing groups. The Pakistan Administrative Service, formerly known as the District Management Group, is different. It has been one of the top choices of candidates because it occupies a vast network of prime governmental positions and comes sloset to being the steel frame the ICS was.

If the suggested reforms are implemented, the management of departments will rest with the respective bureaucracies in f each department. The PAS should, therefore, be devolved to the third tier of government. 

The PAS officers are trained to manage sub-districts, districts, divisions and eventually government departments. This gives them broad exposure of the landscape of the country and allows them to acquire skills in public dealing. However, in today’s fast moving world driven by technology these skills, while useful, are neither relevant nor effective in problem solving at the top.

The administration and management of districts is a task for local government. If the suggested reforms are implemented, the management of departments/ divisions will rest with respective vertical bureaucracies of each department. The PAS should, therefore, be devolved to the third tier of government, so that this service can assist local governments in effectively managing the districts.

An extremely important aspect missing from the current structure of civil service is its ability and capacity to understand and manage the economy of the country. In a globalised world, this requires specialised knowledge, training, experience and exposure.

To overcome this challenge, the civil service needs to introduce a new cadre of “finance and economy.” This will provide the service the eyes and ears capable of informing strategic direction of the country’s economy in conformity with the regional and world economies.

The intricacies of meaningful civil service reforms are too detailed for the scope of this essay. While proposing change of examination structure, formation of vertical bureaucracies of specialist cadres, devolution of PAS to local government, and creation of a new “finance andeconomy” cadre, it is important to devolve police to the local government. There is a need also for a “national tax agency” to replace the Federal Board of Revenue.

With almost 14,000 babies being born every day, most of whom are not guaranteed to receive school, the society is in a tailspin. Low-productivity agriculture is unable to feed the population; the unskilled labour is unable to compete regionally; and whatever intellectual capital we have is leaving for other countries.

Suffice it to say that we need a major surgery in the governance structure. A holistic view of reforms is needed as a matter of utmost priority. Our establishment must realise the magnitude of the challenge and act with extreme urgency to put a stop to this bleeding.

The writer is a former adviser to the prime minister and the Punjab chief minster