Civil service reform is as soon as once more making headlines in Islamabad. The federal government has floated new proposals, principally centered on tinkering with recruitment exams and procedures. However whereas consideration is given to entrance exams, interviews, and promotions, there’s a deafening silence on the deeper malaise of our bureaucracy-its colonial legacy and the entrenched master-slave mindset. How can reforms succeed if the very DNA of the establishment stays unchallenged?
Our recruitment mannequin right this moment will not be removed from Plato’s historic thought of the “philosopher-king”-a ruler examined for information of worldly affairs, armed with mental means, and entrusted with absolute authority to control. In Pakistan, this takes the type of a Deputy Commissioner or senior bureaucrat whose entry into service is dependent upon mind and bookish information. But there’s little or no evaluation of their ethical compass, moral orientation, or capability for humility and justice. The result’s unsurprising: corruption seeps in, energy is abused, and a colonial tradition of dominance persists, the place officers behave much less like servants of the individuals and extra like masters of their fiefdoms.
If we’re to seek for steering, we’d like not flip solely to Plato. Nearer to house and infinitely richer in ethical imaginative and prescient is Hazrat Ali (RA)’s well-known letter to Malik al-Ashtar, written when he appointed him governor of Egypt. This letter, preserved in Nahj al-Balagha, is without doubt one of the most profound paperwork of governance in human historical past. It doesn’t dwell on examinations or procedures, however on the qualities of character, humility, and justice required of those that govern.
Ali (RA) reminds Malik that authorities will not be a privilege however a belief (amanah). He instructs him: “Infuse your coronary heart with mercy, love, and kindness to your individuals. Don’t stand over them like grasping beasts who really feel it is sufficient to devour them, for the individuals are of two varieties: both your brothers in religion, or your equals in humanity.”
On this one line lies a whole rejection of the colonial master-slave mindset. The individuals are not topics to be dominated over however equals to be served with compassion. Distinction this with the tradition of lots of our bureaucrats, who nonetheless behave as lords of the district-dispensing favors, demanding deference, and maintaining the general public at a distance.
Ali (RA) additional warns in opposition to the corrupting influences that creep into governance: “By no means take counsel of a miser, for he’ll vitiate your magnanimity and frighten you of poverty. Don’t take counsel of a coward, for he’ll discourage you from pursuing what is true. Don’t take counsel of the grasping, for he’ll instill greed in you and switch you right into a tyrant. Miserliness, cowardice, and greed deprive man of his belief in God.”
These phrases reduce to the center of our governance disaster. Too usually, officers encompass themselves with sycophants, opportunists, and vested pursuits who feed their fears and ambitions. As an alternative of being guided by integrity and belief in God, they’re pushed by greed, insecurity, and self-preservation.
Ali (RA) additionally provides direct recommendation on conceitedness: “Don’t say: ‘I’m your overlord and dictator, and it’s best to due to this fact bow to my instructions.’ For this may corrupt your coronary heart, weaken your religion, and create dysfunction within the state.”
Right here is the antidote to the very tradition that persists in our civil service today-the colonial posture of authority. Ali (RA) reminds his governor that authority with out humility is a poison: it corrupts the center of the ruler and destabilizes the polity.
So the place does this go away Pakistan’s reform agenda? If we take Hazrat Ali’s (RA) steering severely, then civil service reform should transcend mental testing. What’s required is an moral filter in recruitment, guaranteeing that those that enter service accomplish that not merely with competence, however with character.
This implies introducing an extra layer within the course of. Candidates needs to be evaluated for honesty, justice, integrity, braveness, compassion, and temperance. They need to display a dedication to service, not a lust for energy or wealth. Public service should be seen as a belief, not a privilege.
How can this be achieved? A two-tier method is important. First, psychological and moral evaluation needs to be built-in into recruitment. Candidates will be examined by structured eventualities, moral dilemmas, and interviews designed to probe their values. For example, how would they reply to strain from political elites? Would they shield the weak even at the price of private loss? Would they uphold the regulation in opposition to the highly effective?
Second, pre-application profiling needs to be launched. State establishments such because the Particular Department or Intelligence Bureau already keep methods of background checks. These will be refined to guage the ethical compass and popularity of candidates. A candidate with a historical past of dishonesty, conceitedness, or exploitation of others shouldn’t be entrusted with public workplace.
Critics might argue that is idealistic. But the choice is what we already see: a civil service that continues to be an inheritor to the Raj, disconnected from the individuals, marred by corruption, and proof against reform. Hazrat Ali’s (RA) constitution exhibits us that reform will not be about procedures alone however about cultivating rulers who’re additionally servants, leaders who see governance as a belief earlier than God.
Pakistan doesn’t want philosopher-kings who rule with mind however lack humility. It wants public servants who embody justice, honesty, compassion, and accountability. If we glance to Hazrat Ali’s (RA) timeless steering, we might lastly start to dismantle the colonial mindset and construct a paperwork worthy of a free nation-one the place governance is rooted not in conceitedness, however in mercy, justice, and belief.
