Kanwar M Dilshad
Prime Minister office issued show cause notices and warning letters were also issued to derelict officers for their lacklustre response or inaction towards public complaints registered on the Pakistan Citizens Portal.
It said Pakistan Citizens Portal has completed it’s one year and during this period, every effort has been made to improve the capacity of the ministries, divisions, provincial departments and organizations to properly handle complaints.
The report pointed out that the quality of response to the citizens complaints showed that the system was left in the hands of subordinates, with majority of the decisions taken by them.
It identified that many resolved complaints were lacking letter notification picture, some dropped on wrong pleas, many were decided at an unauthorized level and unnecessary time was wasted in submission of just a response to the complainants.
There are deep seated reasons for the bureaucracy shoddy performance and the government must take a comprehensive view of this problem instead of superficial steps like issuing show cause notices.
The reform programme of the bureaucracy has produced little of substance so far. it is common knowledge that the accountability process unleashed on the bureaucracy by NAB has had a debilitating impact on how bureaucrats are now approaching their assignments.
Astonishing of this is that the show cause letters have emanated from the office of PM instead of the Chief Minister Punjab office.
Such a situation has complicated matters for the bureaucracy because they know that while they report to the Chief Minister, their decision maker sits in Islamabad.
This sends a wrong signal to o officialdom and, therefore, bureaucrats look towards Islamabad instead of Lahore. Such a mode of governance under PM government has not produced the desired results in Punjab.
While it is that the PM also keeps a check on the performance of the civil servants, it would be far more advisable for the Centre to empower the Punjab government in order for it to get the bureaucrats to perform at the desired level.
Governance has to coalesce around defined and identifiable targets that are achieved through focused implementation driven by close supervision. In the present situation, such governance doesn’t seem to be visible in Punjab. The PM should focus on the root-causes of bureaucracy’s lack of performance.
—The writer is former Federal Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan and currently Chairman National Democratic Foundation.
