Political appointments lead to politicisation of the government departments. When criterion of an appointment is based on political connections, it not only smashes the principles of merits, but also mars the performance of the official hierarchy and brings moral degradation in everything at its best.

Pakistan has a long history of political appointments in bureaucracy, foreign affairs, public sector organisations, banks and civilian investigation agencies. As a result, political appointments have turned the profit-making organisations into loss-making burdens, the national assets into liabilities and destroyed every institution from business, trade and industry to anti-corruption organisations. The incapable ministers have added their shares of troubles into the vital government departments where they find partners in bureaucratic circles. This practice of making and breaking the rules is going on in this country since independence.

Unfortunately, politicisation of the government institutions has not only affected the writ of the government, but also led to the creation of big cartels and mafias of land grabbers, drugs and robbers in every city of the country; especially they have established their seats in big cities including Karachi and occupied government and private land worth billions of rupees. Killings and robberies have spoiled the lives of common citizens. Karachi is now filled with heap of filths and other cities of the country are not different from the mega city in look and style and all that is called administrative failure which is a product of politicisation.

The pathetic part of the situation is that if the dictatorial regimes hampered the political process from moving forward, the political governments also failed to ensure transparency in the method of their appointments and working during their tenures in the office. The political governments caused more harm to the national institutions than the military governments. The recent incident in which only a graduate was appointed as chief of a government organisation on political grounds is a tip of the iceberg. If scrutiny has something to do with the management, a host of officials in the senior cadre, drawing hefty salaries and perks, will face early retirement.

Political appointments have always opened floodgates of corruption in the country, leading to administrative failures and mismanagement in various vital government organisations. National institutions like the Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airlines and a host of electricity generation projects, which should be the pride of the nation, are incurring annual losses of billions of rupees. The mega organisations are a burden on the economy rather than assets where political appointments have destroyed their utility in every sense.

The provincial governments are far ahead in politicising their institutions, including police, revenue, food and health and education departments. Politicising of police has resulted in grave law and order situation not only in Sindh, especially in Karachi, but also in other parts of the country. Political appointments in Karachi and Hyderabad destroyed peace in the two peaceful cities as it worked as militant organs of the local and nationalist parties.

The economy is one of the victims of politicisation of the government departments, which has been going through ups and downs for years due to flawed and inconsistent policies. In case a policy is sincerely devised, it falters half way at the implementation stage. The country has become a graveyard of policies prepared by incapable officials at the cost of taxpayers’ money. Various industrial policies, development projects and plans have either been thrown in cold storage or left in the middle of the implementation stages, causing billions of rupees losses to the national exchequer.

The perpetrators of the failed policies have never been prosecuted due to lack of any mechanism. No one has ever been tried or identified for causing losses to the national wealth. There is no accountability process for the government officials and if there is any the major penalty is suspension from the services and that too for misuse of powers. The accountability process for civilians has apparently been hijacked to serve the wrongdoers. The National Accountability Bureau preferred out of court settlements, allowing the corrupt elements to walk free. The government failed to simplify tax system, but introduced tax amnesty scheme instead which only ramified corruption in the country. If the nation wants to end corruption, it will have to depoliticise government departments. These types of follies are commonplace in the absence of the government writ and again the main cause of trouble is political appointments. An important institution of NAB itself indulged in corruption and protection of the corrupt in the past.

If the nation wants fair solution to their political and economic troubles, it must force the political parties to shun their policies of politicisation. Every government official should be forced to work within the limits of his powers and misuse of authority should be made an unpardonable crime. The only way to purge the national institutions of the corrupt and political appointments is to write standard operating system afresh. The federal and provincial ministers should be appointed on the basis of their qualifications and expertise rather than political affiliation. Political interference in administrative affairs should be declared as crime and a comprehensive mechanism should be devised to stop the officials from misuse of their authority. Depoliticisation will allow the law of the land to take its course against criminals.