Greater connectivity is a morale-booster: Fair & Square

When our batch joined civil services of Pakistan way back in 1974, we were taught a number of administrative science subjects including ‘Leadership and Authority’ and ‘Motivation and Morale-Building’ in the Academy for Administrative Training.

At that time, those subjects rather concepts appeared extremely non-traditional or out of sync with the ground realities as they prevailed in our country. Those were the days when the former Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had introduced Administrative Reforms in the country with focus on making the bureaucrats real public servants (lot of practical steps were taken to lower the heightened egos like travelling in bus and cutting the grass and digging pits with our delicate hands).

Even during the present times, these concepts are as new as ever before to our officialdom as they have been rarely tried in our administrative systems with a few exceptions. One of the known- and healthy- exceptions is connectivity between the soldiers and the high command in our armed forces. The people have witnessed as to how the Pakistani armed forces’ chiefs including the COAS and other services’ chiefs move places on a constant basis and keep themselves connected with the soldiers on the front including highly dangerous and sensitive fronts where concentration of enemies or terrorists is at its peak. During the last few weeks and months, COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa, went to frontline positions where valiant soldiers of Pakistan Army and other paramilitary troops are fighting the toughest battles with merciless extremists that too in a very difficult terrain and on some craggiest hills.

In civil services, this connectivity has been there but in a very low measure and on very rare occasions which indicates that elitist mindset and aristocratic attitudes have tended to dominate our public administrative system in the higher echelons which have remained detached from the lower classes and categories.

And when I came to know the other day that the newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Punjab, Arif Nawaz, has advised DIGs, SPs and other officers to ‘know their subordinates’, I was really delighted that the people in high command in one of the important enforcement setups has tried to inculcate the culture of connectivity from top to bottom and vice versa. This metaphor ‘know thy subordinate’ means coming out of disconnect between the ‘real force’ or the lower ranks and the superior officers a good number of whom are not even in the know of names of their close subordinates.

IGP’s stress on increasing this connectivity means empowerment of the cops in the field which actually means empowerment of the public. Of course, the public can be served in a better way with motivation and morale-building of cops. The IGP has also embarked on making his presence felt even at the police stations’ levels which has been rarely practiced in the past. This is another good step towards morale-building not only of the lower police ranks but also of the public that has remained in a state of despair over the sour treatment meted out to them in police stations for years. According to IGP, greater connectivity is important because foot constables and head constables constitute 85 per cent of the force.

During my own interaction with IGP, the latter told me that Lahore police have also introduced a good model of morale-boosting integration of lower ranks into the system as, during a briefing by CCPO Lahore, Capt ( retired) Amin Wains, the IGP has been told that every constable has been tasked to give at least  one piece of information a month. During a very limited time of a few weeks, as many as 32 thousand pieces of information came into the system, a portion of which has led to important clues of crimes or crimes in the making.

At this point, I would like to comment on CCPO Lahore’s drug-free drive. Parents of hundreds of addicts have heaved a sigh of relief but some influential, protected people are doing this dirty business without any fear of law. I myself happened to chase (in my journalistic capacity) one or two young addicts. To my dismay the narcotics’ suppliers were located in a locality that is surrounded by hundreds of lawyers’ offices. No ordinary or extraordinary cop dare enter into that territory.

I am as sure as fate once our legal eagles whose vast majority is the torchbearer of a clean society and an unpolluted youth force, come to know about such destructive things going on in their vicinity, they will do their utmost to strengthen CCPO Lahore’s drug-free mission.

mianrehman1@gmail.com