Session 16: Last minute approval

In my first day at my management class when we are discussing about bureaucracy my teacher called bureaucracy as being inefficient in terms of time. One of the reasons behind this is that the chain of commands and this hierarchy structure create hurdles for getting the job done. By studying the history of Pakistan one can claim that bureaucracy and Army are most stable institutions. In between toppling of the democratic governments and martial laws this structure (bureaucracy) of the country smoothly ran its affairs and strengthened with time penetrating deep and influencing country policy,

The reason behind their increased strength and influence is the inefficiency of political parties that got a chance to represent people. First to be fair to political parties they did have very less chance to represent the nation but when they got the opportunity they never appointed competent people on federal or provincial level for the required policy making. As a result bureaucracy came forward hence filling up the required gap as composed of learned people for the specified job it worked out in carving the policy. But the problem with this is that there is this third party who is shaping policy with no consideration of people demands and their stance on a particular issue. Even when one argues that bureaucrats do what is best for the people; one can ask who is feeding these people with the information of the ‘best’. Is it the media or is it their own understanding of things?

So now since Pakistani politicians have got the chance they should among themselves choose the people who will be able to carve out and help along with bureaucracy in creating a course of action keeping in mind the demands and wants of the public. Instead of just signing on a made up policy at the very last stage of a drafted scheme by bureaucracy he should be actively involved in making the strategy for it from the start. Only then the true expectation from the politicians or ministers can be fulfilled.