Bureaucratic Derogatory and Administrative Hierarchy Appraisal with reference to Sub-Continent Dr. Mughees Ahmed

           Bureaucratic Derogatory and Administrative Hierarchy

                    Appraisal with reference to Sub-Continent

                                  Dr. Mughees Ahmed

                                        Abstract

          The study of the bureaucracy as administrative hierarchy

          designed by British in the political context is the main object of

          this paper. This chain of command has impersonal behavior with

          respect to public. It increased powers, by lack of initiative and

          flexibility by unresponsiveness to human needs and public

          opinion. Corruption in bureaucracy is increased by tendency to

          defer decisions to superior and to impede with red-taps. This

          paper is an attempt to analyze the overall effects of corruption in

          bureaucracy on the output of political process in the sub-

          continent. Another main focus of this paper is to analyze the

          power of non-political elements in politics. Therefore, for the

          purpose of analysis, we have adapted the historical, analytical

          and comparative approaches. It is hoped that the outcome of this

          analysis can provide a solid foundation to extend the spectrum of

          this research on this issue.

Historical Background

It is a common knowledge that the term ‘bureaucracy’ means the administrative

staff which executes commands and serves as a bridge between the rulers and

ruled.  It is a distinctive form of organization found not just in government but in

all spheres of modern society. It is noteworthy that in the United States, many

top positions go to presidential appointees rather than to permanent civil

servants. Let people not say that the government officials who have done so

little are in surplus to our requirements.

So far as bureaucratic corruption is concerned, it is referred to be the corruption

engaged in by state employees. In effect this describes a very significant part of

overall corruption, as the executive arm of the state is most directly involved in

service delivery and economic and social regulation.

Bureaucratic Derogatory and Administrative Hierarchy Appraisal with reference to Sub-Continent

Bureaucracy is almost alone in implementing and enforcing laws and

regulations. In so doing, they may have quite a bit of discretion. Most modern

legislation is general and can be effectively enforced only if administrative

officials work out its detail and implementation. Policy implementation and

enforcement usually depend on bureaucrats with which they put it into practice.

Bureaucracies are involved in political communication and political elites,

whether executives or legislators. In this perspective, many of their decisions

are based upon the information they obtain through public administrative

process. Similarly, various interest groups, political parties, business elites, and

the general public depend upon such information.‘As far as a political government is concerned, a lot depends on the relationship of different respective players and the establishment. The longevity of a political

rule depends on the individual ruler’s relationship with the establishment and

his/her own behavior. An unwise politician engages in massive looting and

plunders without considering the high political cost of his behavior. Thus, the

government is gone even before it can stabilize.’

From 1947 to 1957, i.e., during the first decades of Pakistan history,

bureaucracy was dedicated and worked hard for the development and progress

of this country. They proved themselves as change agent in this era. They held

the nation together and ensured its survival. Slowly, but surly Pakistan was

progressing as young democratic nation. Bureaucracy also played very

important role in framing the constitution of 1956 of Pakistan. Bureaucracy as

an organization structured hierarchically, in which lower-level officials are

charged with administering regulation codifies in rules that specify impersonal,

objective guidelines for making decisions. In the modern world, many large

organizations, especially business firms and the executives of developed states

are organized along bureaucratic lines. 

The main task of administration in British India devolved upon the members of

the Indian Civil Service, which set standards of efficiency and incorruptibility

which have seldom been equaled in any other civil service. Even today former

ICS officers are considered the backbone of the administration system in both

India and Pakistan. Being one of the oldest civil services in the Sub-continent,

the ICS name into being as early as the eighteenth century. After 1853,

  Journal of Political Studies

appointments were made by the British government in place of the East India

Company on the basis of open competition. As late as 1892, the (ICS)

numbered only 992 officers, and only 21 of these were Indians. But after 1900,

increasing numbers of Indians were taken into the service, through rigid

examination, and on the eve of independence a major part of the service was

Indian. Machiavelli’s skill in using information for practical purposes was

institutionalized and accepted as common sense by officials and bureaucrats

within two centuries.  In the India-Pakistan context, the bureaucrat a relic of the

colonial administration, form a powerful institution that comprises

administrators, sleuths, police, customs (powerful people who raise our hopes

and dash them at will). Remarkable changes cannot be noted in the last

century. Modern bureaucracies use state power to extract and accumulated

wealth for themselves. 

Bureaucracy in Pakistan

Bureaucracy is an active pressure group in Pakistan. The earliest policy

decisions were taken by bureaucrats, who like other bureaucrats in the world,

thought that the politicians were unruly. The state-security policies, the civil

servants adopted brought them close to the army. This was the beginning of the

most powerful pressure group in Pakistan, known vaguely as ‘the

establishment’. The nation-building process initiated after 1947 favored the

military-bureaucratic combine. Pakistan was meant to be a state that would

oppose the fundamental principle of the Indian state. Born out of communal

conflict, Pakistan represented a negation of India’s secular nationalism. If one

succeeded, it would mean the failure of the other. The first war with India began

in 1947; consequently, danger presented to the state of Pakistan strengthened

the military lobby. Bureaucracy seems to be civil administration in Europe and

America. However, with few exceptions, the bureaucrats in Pakistan have

operated in the manner in which they were brought up under the colonial

regime. Bureaucracy in Pakistan is the successor to ICS which was organized to

maintain law and order. It was not a welfare administration.

        Defects in Pakistan’s bureaucracy                                 

Defects in Pakistan’s bureaucracy can be noted because excessive political

powers are concentrated in the hands of bureaucracy to the deprivation of non-

bureaucratic segments of the society. Bureaucracy is infested with corruption

and inefficiency due to its imperial style. It suffered from exploitation of

administrative discretion. There is lack of cooperation and coordination of team

spirit in public servants, as there is jealously between different categories of

civil service. It undermined the autonomy of educational institutions, local

government and professional organizations. These are only the few major

reasons due to which the prevailing bureaucratic procedure cause unbearable

delay in implementing the national plans and policies which lead to open the

door for corruption and inefficiency at every level. It denies equal opportunity to

all employees for their promotion on higher positions in public services, for

which they deserve because of their competence. It is not accountable to

public. It failed to use voluntary contribution of non-officials in the

administration. It relied excessively on monetary incentives.

The anti-corruption policies adopted by the Government of Pakistan are also

valuable. Some of these policies have been supported by the World Bank,

include targeting perceptions and beliefs, for instance through organizing

workshops and seminars, institutional reforms, such as support for

decentralization and devolution. It also includes organizational reforms

introduced by different governments such as privatization and civil service

reforms, policy reforms, including those aimed at reducing the scope of

government intervention in the economy. Developing countries generally have

much higher corruption than the developed countries which is because of the

reason that the state typically occupies a strategic position in processes of early

capitalism.  The key to Bhutto’s bureaucratic reform was the abolition of the

all-powerful CSP, the tightly knit core of the bureaucracy which had in effect

ruled the country throughout history.  It has also been argued that bureaucratic

         Structure and size of the federal bureaucracy                             

The structure and size of the federal bureaucracy has been the subject of the

Committee on Restructuring and Rightsizing the Bureaucracy. Internal

bureaucratic accountability has been addressed by amending the Federal

Public Services Commission Ordinance, the Civil Service Act and the passing

of a Removal from Services Ordinance directly targeted at corrupt bureaucrats.

There have also been improvements in external monitoring through the setting

up of an ombudsman and through the actions of the National Accountability

Bureau. Pay and compensation issues have been addressed as part of the

government’s ongoing Pay and Compensation Reform. The Government of

Pakistan has also attempted to address some of the issues of accountability

within the political structure. The basic pay and allowances are low relative to

the private sector and also in terms of international comparisons.

Review and Reflection

The main concern of this paper has been the elaboration of corruption of

bureaucracy in India and Pakistan. Bureaucracy uses delaying tactics to justify

its corruption and plays pivotal role in rule and regulation making. Bureaucrats

are not only playing the role of mere adviser to the ministers in policy

formulation but also have combined the roles of advisers, policy formulators

and policy-implementer in both countries. It is nature of bureaucracy to

exercise their preferences for their own group interest in the form of unity. In

Pakistan and India, proud to be a bureaucrat or Babu and belongs to elevated

caste and to look down upon civil, subordinate and humble birth is a challenge

to an actual spirit of working relationship and their role in political system.

Political parties are high jacked by bureaucrats. The mode of negative and

aggressive thinking is the main cause to create a gap between officials and

mass. Such situations become common if the original problems persevere and

no dramatic transformation takes place. In such circumstances people continue

to feel the sense of insecurity of their rights. It is widely recognized that

developing country’s bureaucrats have too much ‘discretion’ which allows them

to engage in corruption or deliver poor performance without the threat of

effective checks. As opposed to bureaucracy, the political executives or

ministers should be selected from the men of dynamic personalities; who may

Bureaucratic Derogatory and Administrative Hierarchy Appraisal with reference to Sub-Continent

not play as tool in hands of top civil executive or bureaucracy. There should be

decentralization of authority and power in all the departments and divisions of

the government. A sound system of education should be developed at grass

level so that the citizens may advance intellectually and the bureaucratic

system may be kept away from the higher class. All promotions must be made

purely on merit. An impartial and unbiased press and media can serve as cheek

and balance on bureaucracy. The government should establish a research

academy on Management and Administration. Bureaucrat should be intimately

acquainted with the administrative work. Major changes also need to be made

in the prevailing outdated system, particularly in the rules and regulations

relating to bureaucracy. They must be realized that they have been given

authority and powers for the service of the people and the welfare of the

masses and not for their selfish motives and self-interests. The political

influence over bureaucracy must be eradicated. They may not be made tool in

the hands of political parties especially this trend exists in Pakistan. The

principle of accountable-management should be introduced in the

administrative structure and devolution and decentralization of powers can be

helpful in this regard. There is also need to reform the training style of

bureaucracy in sub-continent.The red-tapism should be discouraged which is in fact a major tool of corruption among the bureaucracy. It affects negatively the efficiency of the work because

it is outdated procedure and also has an effect on the merit in various cases. It

has generally been observed that mostly the rules and regulations are relaxed

in the favor of friends and relatives. Unfortunately, the aloofness behavior of

bureaucracy separated it from the masses. The current training style makes

them proud and converts them to superior class. A responsible legislature can

serve as an effective guardian of virtue through oversight exercised by standing

committees or by special inquiries. The lack of actual spirit of austerity is

leading to corruption in bureaucracy. The several practical institutional

measures can be taken to limit corruption. Naturally, remuneration must be

adequate to sustain the reasonable life standard and at the same time it must

serve as an incentive to attract competent people to government service. But

hike in remuneration and pay alone is not the answer to reduce the corruption.

                                 

BIBLOGRAPHY

·        Sultan Khan, Public Administration with reference to Pakistan, Lahore: Famous Books,2007, p.422.

·        Andrew Heywood, Politics, London: Macmillan,1997, p. 340.

·        Mushtaq H. Khan, Bureaucratic and Political Corruption in Pakistan (Report submitted for the Operations Evaluation Department), Islamabad: The World Bank, December 2001, p. 2.

·        Gabriel A. Almond, et. al., Comparative Politics Today, (8th ed.) Islamabad: National Book Foundation, 1988, p.124.

·        Ayesha Siddiqa, ‘A regime-less change’, Dawn, November 21, 2008.

·        Sultan Khan, op. cit., p. 431.

·        Mark Kesselman, Joel Krieger, William A. Joseph, Introduction to Comparative Politics, Islamabad: National Book Foundation, p. 683.

·        Bureaucracy in  Harold C. Hinton, et.al., Major Governments of Asia, New York, Cornell University Press,1962, pp. 279-280.

·        David Altheide and Jhon M. Johnson, Bureaucratic Propaganda, USA [Boston,

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·        Jawed Naqvi, Dawn, “Powerful people who raise our hopes and dash them at will,”February 16, 2009.

·        Hamza Alavi, ‘Authoritarianism and Legitimation of State Power in

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·        Ibid., p.33.

·        Sultan Khan, op. cit., pp 437-438.

·        Mushtaq H. Khan, op. cit., p 2.

·        Subrata Kumar Mitra, op. cit., p. 56

·        Timothy Beslay, Roberto Zagha, Development Challenges in the 1990s, New York:

·        The World Bank, (2005), p. 213.

·        Barun Kumar Sahu, Unwritten Flaws of Indian Bureaucracy, [New Delhi:] Pustak

·        Mahal, (2004) p.29.

·        Stephen P. Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan, [Washington, D.C] Brooking Institution

·        Press, (2004), p. 21.

·        Gabriel A. Almond, et. al., p. 664.

·        The Times of India, 3 June 2009, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

·        news/india/Indian- bureaucracy-ranked-worst-in-Asia-Survey/articleshow/4612918.cms., 3 June 2009.

·        Harrison, et. al., India & Pakistan: the First Fifty Years, Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1999, pp.34-35.

·        Ibid.

·        S.K. Verma, Kusum, Fifty Years of The Supreme Court of India: Its Grasp and

·        Reach, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, p.130.