Journalist Ansar Abbasi reports that the current government is actively considering reimplementing bureaucratic reforms initially introduced during former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration.
These reforms were developed under the supervision of Dr. Ishrat Hussain, who led a task force that conducted extensive consultations and 68 sessions with over 3,000 participants to modernize civil service operations.
The proposed reforms aimed to transform various aspects of the civil service, including revising the CSS examination scheme, advancing performance-based promotions, and restructuring public institutions.
Specifically, the reforms advocated for performance evaluations to set standards and offer incentives, streamlined early retirement options for underperforming employees, and modified pension arrangements for recruits. Despite introducing these initiatives to enhance efficiency within the civil service, they encountered substantial bureaucratic resistance, resulting in sporadic protests and a slowdown in implementation, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded.
Although the High Court initially upheld these reforms, the succeeding PDM government revoked them, eliminating the performance-based retirement system. This decision halted the pivotal step towards improving civil service effectiveness.
Abbasi indicates that there is potential for some of these reforms to be reinstated, suggesting that the government might revisit and possibly adopt certain proposals from the PTI era to improve bureaucratic operations and governance standards.
