New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS) Pakistan has unveiled civil service reform packages in years, but the plan faces the same challenge that has undermined previous overhauls, according to a report.
A report by Dawn said that the reform package proposes the creation of 11 specialised professional cadres, competency-based recruitment, performance-linked salaries and a new National Executive Service (NES) that would open senior government positions to competition from civil servants, academics and private-sector professionals.
However, it noted that Pakistan has a long history of announcing major reforms that fail to achieve their intended impact.
Successive governments since independence have introduced restructuring plans to improve governance, including the abolition of the Civil Service of Pakistan structure in 1973 and local government reforms introduced in 2001.
Many of those efforts were weakened by political changes, institutional resistance and inconsistent implementation.
“This history reveals Pakistan’s recurring problem: reform is often treated as an event rather than a sustained process,” the report said.
The latest proposals acknowledge the growing need for specialised expertise in sectors such as information technology, energy, climate change, health, education and engineering.
The report also warned that opening senior positions to outside professionals could also create opportunities for political patronage unless recruitment processes remain transparent and merit-based.
“Performance-linked remuneration illustrates the challenge. Annual performance agreements for ministries, flowing down to individual officers, could improve accountability,” Dawn said.
“But who determines whether a secretary has performed well? If targets are vague or assessments depend excessively upon political superiors, financial incentives could reward proximity to power rather than performance,” it added.
The exclusion of the Police Service and Foreign Service from the proposed executive framework has generated fresh debate.
Pakistan has already produced detailed reform blueprints for policing, including recommendations submitted in 2019, many of which remain largely unimplemented, the report said.
–IANS
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