Are hand-picked economic heads worth it?

By Mansoor Ahmad
September 18, 2019

LAHORE: Merit does not necessarily means that a competent person has been appointed on a post; it rather means that the appointment has been made after due process selecting the best among those that applied for the post.

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Thus political appointments can never be made on merit because the selection process is not adopted and the head of the government appoints any person of his liking. There was no board of competent persons to interview the appointee. The post is not advertised to enable many individuals with right qualification to try their luck.

The head of the state may or may not appoint the appropriate person for the post but this selection cannot be termed as based on merit. Take for instance the case of chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The gentleman is in fact overqualified. He has the credentials to head the apex revenue body. But the appointment process was opaque. So much so that initially it looked that the courts will quash the appointment. Then a way was found by hiring the chairman FBR without salary on a two-year contract. Had a proper hiring process been adopted even then he would have qualified from amongst the revenue experts’ lot available in the country. But since the need to appoint a new top tax official arrived at a time the government was in a hurry to go to International Monetary Fund (IMF), there was no other option but to adopt this hasty procedure.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf- (PTI) led government first brought a Punjab-based bureaucrat to head the FBR but was apparently disappointed by the slow progress on revenue front. It is rare to induct FBR chief from the bureaucracy. Musharraf brought in a retired revenue officer for the job and then installed a chartered accountant from the private sector in that office. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government toyed with different options but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regime reverted to the bureaucrats.

Realistically speaking, the FBR chairman is a highly technical post. It requires the person to have a deep knowledge of tax regime and the way the revenue bureaucracy operates. Abdullah Yusuf, a chartered accountant knew the strength and weaknesses of the bureaucracy of the revenue department. Shabbar Zaidi is a step ahead. He not only knows how tax inspectors or tax commissioners operate but also what measures the private sector adopts to avoid taxes. So he was qualified but was not appointed on merit. We should not bypass the system in anyway if we want this country to be governed by rule of law.

Governor State Bank of Pakistan Raza Baqar again seems to be a person with best credentials. In fact the outgoing IMF showered praise on him when he was being considered for the job by Pakistan. His appointment again was not on merit as the procedures were not followed. Even a day before he landed in Pakistan, he was working for the IMF in Egypt. He is perhaps the youngest-ever central bank governor at least in this region. Time will tell whether he would deliver or not.

However, since his arrival, economic growth hit a big bump in the road, the rupee went in a fall free, and monetary policy was tightened far more than even IMF’s expectations. His philosophy of attracting hot money (portfolio investment and bonds) may backfire in the long-run. Pakistan simply lacks the resources to pay high interest on imported dollars for a long time.

The constitution gives the Prime Minister power to appoint advisers for different sectors. Advisers draw hefty salaries and perks.

They can be appointed without merit but the regulatory posts like heads of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Water and Power Development Authority, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, etc have to be appointed on merit and should not be disturbed or harassed during their respective tenures.

The National Accountability Bureau and other investigatory agencies should be breathing down the necks of these regulatory institutions, if prudence, equitability, and transparency in rules and regulations are what we are striving for to get our economy back on its feet and moving forward.

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