Friendly bureaucrats

The government has allocated Rs79.5 billion for the Higher Education Commission and Rs22.4 billion for vertical programmes in the health sector. In comparison the allocation to ‘run government affairs’ is a mammoth Rs352.2 billion. To me, the math does not seem to add up.

The rate at which people are being taxed demands that they get high quality services from the government and that they should be accorded the highest priority. The unfortunate reality is that ordinary people find it almost impossible to get their grievances addressed by civil servants sitting in different government offices. But this does not mean that all civil servants are inefficient. There are many without whom the functioning of the government would surely come to a halt. The point is that the day-to-day interaction between people and civil servants determine whether governance is good or bad. Civil servants should be taught to change their approach towards the general public. The PML-N government needs to take the first step towards reforming the civil service structure.

Syed Hussein El-Edroos

Islamabad