NEWS OF SUBSTANCE
A BIZARRE DRAMA ON THE FORBIDDEN LAWNS
By: NASSER YOUSAF
The flotsam and the cause thereof came to the surface on the same day. It certainly looked to be some kind of magical realism, hard to believe in and yet true to the last fragment.
Yesterday, we were told that the recently set up Prime Minister's Citizens Complaints Portal had received nearly 6000 applications from KP alone, not one of which had so far been redressed to the satisfaction of the suppliants. And then again yesterday, which was the 27th day of the month of November, 2018, we came to know that the officers who were to provide relief to those in distress had decided not to work with so and so officers of the other groups till the removal of same people from their present positions.
The officers protesting the appointment of an assortment of officers from the other departments, including some good professionals, had gathered on the lawns facing the office of the chief secretary in the Civil Secretariat Peshawar. They wore black armbands and hurled all kinds of civil and not quite too civil threats at whomsoever they considered to be in a position of authority and not listening to them. Contrary to comporting themselves like calm and composed members of an association of civil officers, the protesting officers could be seen to have formed themselves into a trade union like body. For the last many years, this circus is going on on the lawns of the Civil Secretariat and elsewhere in the divisional and district offices of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa targeting the officers of the federal government and sundry provincial government departments calling them as usurper. Successive chief secretaries have witnessed this theater from the windows of their decorous offices with complete equanimity to the utter neglect of the public at their mercy and to whom they are regarded as servants in the official parlance.
We all remember that not quite long ago a mullah in the scenic valley of Swat had started operating a radio station with an evening broadcast in which the vituperative preacher and his appointed spokesman would warn the public of the dire fate that awaited them if they did not mend their alleged promiscuous ways. The FM radio station, for it was thus branded, went on smoothly and allegedly with full civil patronage at the helm in Swat then. There was just a solitary voice that kept blowing the whistle from the platform of a newspaper, but that voice of conscience was soon silenced and made to run for his life to the safe waters of America.
In so many ways, the drama enacted on the lawns of the Civil Secretariat is akin to what the mullah in Swat was doing with absolute impunity. It wasn't until the mullah went completely berserk before the state realized how grave the threat was. In truth, the mullah named Fazlullah ought to be a metaphor in the context of KP for all that is neglected without compunction at great cost to the civil polity.
In the case of Swat, all that the government needed to do was to severe the link through which Fazlullah was emotionally blackmailing his gullible and vulnerable audience. All that the government needs to do in the present case is to draft a one line policy to announce in no uncertain words and terms that appointment to any post in the province shall be made purely on the basis of professional expertise and talent possessed by an individual no matter to whichever group that person belongs.
The size of the provincial officers is increasing rapidly. The burgeoning strength of the officers ought to ring alarm or soon you will have another monster like PIA or Pakistan Steel to cope with.
By: NASSER YOUSAF
The flotsam and the cause thereof came to the surface on the same day. It certainly looked to be some kind of magical realism, hard to believe in and yet true to the last fragment.
Yesterday, we were told that the recently set up Prime Minister's Citizens Complaints Portal had received nearly 6000 applications from KP alone, not one of which had so far been redressed to the satisfaction of the suppliants. And then again yesterday, which was the 27th day of the month of November, 2018, we came to know that the officers who were to provide relief to those in distress had decided not to work with so and so officers of the other groups till the removal of same people from their present positions.
The officers protesting the appointment of an assortment of officers from the other departments, including some good professionals, had gathered on the lawns facing the office of the chief secretary in the Civil Secretariat Peshawar. They wore black armbands and hurled all kinds of civil and not quite too civil threats at whomsoever they considered to be in a position of authority and not listening to them. Contrary to comporting themselves like calm and composed members of an association of civil officers, the protesting officers could be seen to have formed themselves into a trade union like body. For the last many years, this circus is going on on the lawns of the Civil Secretariat and elsewhere in the divisional and district offices of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa targeting the officers of the federal government and sundry provincial government departments calling them as usurper. Successive chief secretaries have witnessed this theater from the windows of their decorous offices with complete equanimity to the utter neglect of the public at their mercy and to whom they are regarded as servants in the official parlance.
We all remember that not quite long ago a mullah in the scenic valley of Swat had started operating a radio station with an evening broadcast in which the vituperative preacher and his appointed spokesman would warn the public of the dire fate that awaited them if they did not mend their alleged promiscuous ways. The FM radio station, for it was thus branded, went on smoothly and allegedly with full civil patronage at the helm in Swat then. There was just a solitary voice that kept blowing the whistle from the platform of a newspaper, but that voice of conscience was soon silenced and made to run for his life to the safe waters of America.
In so many ways, the drama enacted on the lawns of the Civil Secretariat is akin to what the mullah in Swat was doing with absolute impunity. It wasn't until the mullah went completely berserk before the state realized how grave the threat was. In truth, the mullah named Fazlullah ought to be a metaphor in the context of KP for all that is neglected without compunction at great cost to the civil polity.
In the case of Swat, all that the government needed to do was to severe the link through which Fazlullah was emotionally blackmailing his gullible and vulnerable audience. All that the government needs to do in the present case is to draft a one line policy to announce in no uncertain words and terms that appointment to any post in the province shall be made purely on the basis of professional expertise and talent possessed by an individual no matter to whichever group that person belongs.
The size of the provincial officers is increasing rapidly. The burgeoning strength of the officers ought to ring alarm or soon you will have another monster like PIA or Pakistan Steel to cope with.
- What has been narrated succinctly in the foregoing may be treated as a complaint by the writer for its disposal through the Prime Minister Citizens Portal, provided the portal in question is functioning.
posted by Nasser Yousaf @ 04:25
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