Obsolete civil service of Indian subcontinent
Obsolete civil service of Indian subcontinent
HORSE-RIDING was a mandatory part of the training imparted to Indian Civil Service (ICS) officers of the pre-Partition era. The reason was less chivalrous and more practical as horses were a viable mode of transport and administrative officers would need the skill ever so often to visit their jurisdiction.
Horse-riding continues to be part of the training of the officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service, the erstwhile District Management Group, even today. Since horse-riding instils self-confidence and improves physical fitness one can argue that this is something which still has at least some farfetched purpose, unlike the countless practices and policies of our civil services that continue to prevail despite having no purpose at all.
It would not go down very well with many of my juniors, seniors and peers, if I say that the ‘elite’ civil service of Pakistan is in fact the ‘obsolete’ civil service of Pakistan.
The morale of the aspirants taking the Central Superior Service (CSS) exam, the gateway to the ‘elite’ civil service of Pakistan, will be badly hit as well and they might end up blaming me for their subsequent failure.
Whatever the reaction, it would not change the fact that from pay scales to promotion criterion, office buildings to office environment, the superiority complex of seniors to the sycophancy of juniors, every single facet of the elite civil service of Pakistan is obsolete.
On a recent trip to Singapore I had the privilege to shadow a young but senior Singaporean bureaucrat. Chee Seng is on a three-year secondment as executive vice-president with a big oil company and will rejoin the government-run Energy Market Authority of Singapore on completion of the period.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Chee Seng invited me to a dinner along with some of his colleagues. The lady sitting on my right having graduated from the London School of Economics on a state scholarship was working in the
HORSE-RIDING was a mandatory part of the training imparted to Indian Civil Service (ICS) officers of the pre-Partition era. The reason was less chivalrous and more practical as horses were a viable mode of transport and administrative officers would need the skill ever so often to visit their jurisdiction.
Horse-riding continues to be part of the training of the officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service, the erstwhile District Management Group, even today. Since horse-riding instils self-confidence and improves physical fitness one can argue that this is something which still has at least some farfetched purpose, unlike the countless practices and policies of our civil services that continue to prevail despite having no purpose at all.
It would not go down very well with many of my juniors, seniors and peers, if I say that the ‘elite’ civil service of Pakistan is in fact the ‘obsolete’ civil service of Pakistan.
The morale of the aspirants taking the Central Superior Service (CSS) exam, the gateway to the ‘elite’ civil service of Pakistan, will be badly hit as well and they might end up blaming me for their subsequent failure.
Whatever the reaction, it would not change the fact that from pay scales to promotion criterion, office buildings to office environment, the superiority complex of seniors to the sycophancy of juniors, every single facet of the elite civil service of Pakistan is obsolete.
On a recent trip to Singapore I had the privilege to shadow a young but senior Singaporean bureaucrat. Chee Seng is on a three-year secondment as executive vice-president with a big oil company and will rejoin the government-run Energy Market Authority of Singapore on completion of the period.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Chee Seng invited me to a dinner along with some of his colleagues. The lady sitting on my right having graduated from the London School of Economics on a state scholarship was working in the