“Ustad Marhoom,” an eccentric and anachronistic character in Ibne Insha’s magnum opus Khumar-i-Gandum used a book, English Teacher as a weapon of mass harassment. The Ustad used his book to instil terror in the hearts of all his acquaintances who laid any claim to proficiency in the English language. Even otherwise, reasonably educated individuals were wary of seeing the Ustad. The reason behind the reluctance to face the Ustad was not exactly lack of proficiency in the English language. It was the sheer unpredictability with which the Ustad started asking his unsuspecting audience the English translation of different vegetable names catalogued in his book that kept the poor people on their toes.

The Ustad has passed away; his legacy lives. Recently, an English examination paper, widely believed to be part of a competitive examination, made a stir on social media. In one of the questions, the candidates were required to give synonyms and antonyms for a set of freakishly outlandish words. Even the native English speakers living in the 21^st Century would be hard put to find antonyms for words like bibulous and chiaroscuro and synonyms for bericloge and demiurge.

While the authenticity of the document may be disputed, this raises a set of questions about the place of English language in our national life, the right qualification for public servants and the quality of civil services.

Taking the advice of ST Coleridge about the living suspension of disbelief, if the objective of the aforementioned English paper was to evaluate the level of proficiency of the prospective civil servants, the above-mentioned question utterly failed to serve this purpose because such words are rarely used even by native speakers. Simplicity, conciseness and directness of an expression are considered merits in the first language and considerably more so in the second language. If the objective was to strategically raise the bar for the candidates appearing for the competitive examination and limit the number of candidates passing the written examination, it is clearly a questionable policy and raises many more disturbing questions.

There are better ways to balance the demand and supply of civil servants. One wonders if such niceties have ever been part of the priority list of successive governments who seem more interested in demonising their political rivals.

A related question is concerned not as much with the people who cannot make it to the prized positions but to the people who do make it to the desired positions but do not deliver. Though there is reason to believe that candidates passing competitive examinations in Pakistan represent the best part of the available talent, Pakistan has miserably failed to leverage this talent to improve the living conditions of its citizens.

Data shows Pakistan’s poor performance in terms of public service delivery. According to the recent data from Worldwide Governance Indicators, in a list of 209 countries, Pakistan ranked 152^nd in regulatory quality, 154^th in terms of the rule of law, and 165^th in terms of control of corruption. Most of the countries lagging Pakistan in terms of the quality of service delivery are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.

What could have gone so terribly wrong with the quality of governance in Pakistan? An analysis of the entry points of public services may be revealing. Evidence suggests that the choice of subjects in the competitive examinations is the single most crucial factor. The distribution of the successful candidates shows that most of the students who pass competitive examinations have an engineering background. This is hardly surprising.

If one chooses the subjects which are mostly objective, such as mathematics, the probability of getting good marks is considerably higher as compared to the subjects which are mostly subjective, such as literature and history. Consequently, the students having better mathematical skills can have a smooth sailing in competitive examinations.

However, this begs another question. Do advanced mathematical skills put one at an advantage in terms of the quality of public service delivery? Although a lot of formal arrangements have been put in place for the public sector employees to learn the tools of the trade during their job, formal academic training is believed to have a crucial effect on the quality of service delivery. As an illustration, a candidate well-versed with the social dynamics may be expected to understand better the drivers of organised crime than the person who is well-versed in the subject of medicine.

Why is the supply of candidates for civil services considerably greater than the demand? One answer may lie in the disparate service structures of public sector employees. While public sector employees in many departments have unenviable working conditions, in some other service cadres, job security, relatively quicker promotions, and better pay scales attract the talent.

A closer analysis reveals more than what meets the eye readily. When ordinary citizens in Pakistan come into contact with the state, getting even simple tasks done is a tall order. Getting hassle-free access to gas or electricity connection, an NOC for a business start-up or renewal of passport may be unthinkable for many. The near impossibility of getting inexpensive and expeditious justice through the courts of law is a more drastic example of why ordinary citizens shudder at the idea of reaching out to the state for redress of their problems. A rent-seeking state can hardly think about the good of ordinary people, except when the plight of the ordinary people can provide political mileage.

But the situation may be radically different for public servants. If one is a public servant, one is probably well-connected. Common training programmes duly serve the purpose of such coordination, even if inadvertently. This provides a passport to get done things that generally come by as a matter of right in many developed countries. Good housing, a decent mode of transportation and the caring hand of the state in tough times is a dream for ordinary people; such perks for public servants understandably serve as a powerful attraction for young people.

Preferential treatment in offices of public service delivery and jumping the queue are less obvious perks. But something more sinister lurks in the background. Stories of the riches of public servants routinely make the rounds in the media. A few years ago, the recovery of assets worth Rs 630 million from the finance secretary of the Balochistan government caused a stir in the national media.

There is a widespread perception that some government functionaries are in cahoots with the highly influential and rapidly expanding land-grab mafia. Hardly a day passes without the media reporting about housing scams and defrauding of innocent citizens of their life-long savings by the wily land developers. As attested by the prime minister himself, reclaiming the land from land grabbers is a very hard task. It makes perfect sense to assume that land grabbing at the scale being observed today would not be possible without the active connivance of some public servants. The legendary riches of a few public servants distort the incentive system and attract individuals with disparate motives.

The nexus between political power brokers and civil servants too affects the quality of public institutions. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah rightly anticipated that any political influence on the civil services would prove disastrous. “Whichever government is formed according to the constitution, and whoever happens to be the prime minister or minister coming into power in the ordinary constructional course, your duty is not only to serve that government loyally and faithfully, but, at the same time, fearlessly, maintaining your high reputation, your prestige, your honour and the integrity of your service.”

The recent episode of en masse disappearance of presiding officers in a by-election in Daska is a stark reminder that public machinery is being abused for narrow political ends.

Proficiency in the English language may be a helpful tool for managing official duties, but the public service delivery system will not improve unless the distortions in the incentive system are removed and values take the centre-stage of the paradigm of public service.

Dr Rafi Amir-ud-Din is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus