ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal has said that Civil Service Reforms is the sole panacea to the problems facing Pakistan at present, adding that the country could make progress by leaps and bounds if the reform agenda be implanted in letter and spirit.
During his address to the concluding session of the marathon two-day National Consultative Workshop on ‘Civil Service Reforms’ organized by the Ministry of Planning Development & Reform (MoPDR) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bhurban area of Murree on Tuesday, he stressed the need that a final document of the National Consultative Workshop should be presented to him within few days so as to send it to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for approval.
Ahsan Iqbal said that the prime minister directed him to skip the important cabinet meeting for the workshop, which speaks the volume about his sense of priority. Besides, he said that people attached high hopes to the Workshop and it could be judged from the comments on social media in this regard.
The National Consultative Workshop on ‘Civil Service Reforms’ was attended by secretaries and chief secretaries from across the country, who presented their valuable recommendations there so as to translate Pakistan Vision 2025 into reality through a Performance Delivery Unit against key performance indicators (KPIs).
The Federal Minister has said that the governance is so complex in the modern era that every ministry should have dedicated Human Resource (HR) Manager to run its affairs effectively.
The participants of the workshop presented their recommendations and suggested that the reforms agenda should be across the board and it should not be a partisan and be a constant process.
They recommended that the recruitment process be made more transparent by incorporating modern and innovative testing techniques through amendment in legislation.
They were of the views that the current legal framework of Public Service Commissions was need to be made more effective by making them autonomous in letter and spirit for conducting professional recruitment.
They said that an aptitude based screening test should be conducted before Central Superior Services (CSS) exam and the education eligibility for CSS exam should be 16 years besides rationalizing its curriculum according to the contemporary needs.
In addition, they stressed the need for giving due weightage to specialization in selection of candidates for specific groups.
Keeping in view the importance of the Information Technology (IT), it was recommended that the IT ministry must make arrangements to provide IT professional to each ministry.
Ahsan Iqbal said that in absence of the system of reward and punishment nothing positive could be achieved hence it is need of the hour to have a hard and tough performance evaluation mechanism to improve the public sector delivery system for the convenience of citizens.
He said that the grade system is irrelevant to modern need so it need to be restructured to make it according to the prevailing situation.
The minister made it clear that the desired results could not be achieved mere through bringing reforms, but they must have to change their behaviors and attitudes as well.
He said that the reform agenda might hurt few interests, but the little pain could ensure their better future; hence change resisters should be convinced so as to implement the reform agenda to make the dream of Pakistan Vision 2025 a reality.
The UNDP Country Director, during his concluding remarks, said that modern and efficient civil servants are pre-requisite to meet the fast changing situation and modern needs.
He asked the participants that ‘it is up to you to make the best choices, as he just came to share his expertise’, as they have great potential and ability to make Pakistan a prosperous and developed country.
