Retirement and bureaucracy.

THIS is apropos the news item 'Retirement rules cause unease among civil servants' (May 2) regarding the federal government's intentions to introduce pre-retirement rules to purge the civil bureaucracy of incompetent, inefficient and ill-reputed officers.

The adviser to the prime minister for institutional reforms and austerity, Dr Ishrat Husain, has claimed that the said rules have been made to ensure service delivery and performance of the civil service and to keep the best of the best officers in the bureaucracy.

Without raising any doubt about the sincere intentions of the government to strengthen civil services and make it more efficient, capable and result-oriented, I would like to share my experiences of the last 33 years of service in one of the most important public sector organisations.

Allow me to say that at present there is no room for honest, dedicated, upright and professionally competent people to grow or even survive in this corrupt system where mafia from top to bottom runs the affairs and is so strong that no one can challenge it.

Surprisingly, those who have political patronage and strong relations with and support of their seniors in the ministries get important positions and promotions despite having no vision, expertise and competence.

Most officers even cannot write a single sentence correctly. One wonders how they get good performance evaluation reports, clear DPEs and undergo training, and are promoted to senior positions such as chief executive officers and general managers without being eligible.

In this backdrop, the claim of the adviser appears wishful thinking. In fact, the entire induction, promotion and training system is fragile, redundant and dormant, which needs immediate overhauling. Perhaps...