Why civil service reforms keep stalling?

Business Recorder

04-08-2025

Singapore has secured the top spot in the 2024 Blavatnik Index of Public Administration, followed by Norway, while Canada and Denmark share third place and Finland ranks fifth. These countries demonstrate consistent strength across all four domains represented by the Index, including leadership, policy, service delivery, and institutional processes.
At the opposite end, Sudan stands last out of 120 nations with a score of 0.17, joined by Myanmar, Nicaragua, Gabon, and Cambodia in the lowest tier.
Pakistan ranks 90th with an overall score of 0.41, performing relatively better than this in public policy (79th) and national delivery (88th) but lagging significantly in strategy and leadership (104th) and people and processes (96th). The Index is developed by the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, and its first report has come out in December 2024.
Pakistan, ranking 104th out of 120 countries in strategy and leadership is alarming. In civil services, responsibility for strategy and leadership is shared across political and administrative levels. Political leaders such as prime ministers, ministers, and cabinet members set the national vision, define policy priorities, and provide overarching direction.
Whereas senior civil servants, including federal secretaries, chief secretaries, and heads of agencies, translate this political vision into administrative strategies and lead large departments to ensure implementation of the same. While specialized institutions like planning commissions and other policy units contribute data-driven insights to refine these strategies as well as help improve implementation.
Where do the gaps lie in this case? Is the problem rooted in political leadership failing to provide a strategic vision, or does it stem from the top bureaucracy lacking the capacity to deliver on those strategic visions? In public discourse, we often claim that 'the system' itself is dysfunctional and incapable of delivering results, but who ultimately is responsible for that failure?
A fundamental issue recognized by many commissions, studies, and senior expert observations has been our inability to build strong, resilient and sustainable institutions. Among the many contributing factors, the dominance of short-term, status quo thinking stands out as a primary cause.
Successive governments tend to prioritize immediate political gains over long-term institutional reforms, or even get toppled before the long-term vision sets in. As a result, policies are often ad hoc rather than structural, leaving no solid foundation for sustainable change leading to vision achievement. This results in reforms to be short-lived and untargeted. Like an initial condition here also, without a strong, capable, and visionary political government, any meaningful attempt at civil service reform is likely to fail.
The failure of reforms to gain momentum is largely due to outdated and overly centralized rules and regulations that limit the potential of civil servants. Pakistan's Rules of Business (RoB) 1973 restrict autonomy and hinder decentralized governance, unlike more flexible frameworks such as India's Allocation of Business Rules or the UK's Ministerial Code. This centralization slows decision-making, reduces institutional agility, and stifles leadership development across administrative levels.
To enhance effectiveness, the Rules of Business (RoB) must be comprehensively revised to align with modern management practices and the demands of a technological, globalized era. This includes legal provisions for financial delegation, performance-based accountability at lower levels, and data-driven oversight.
Likewise, the outdated Secretariat Instructions require transformation to incorporate digital tools, AI, and advanced financial systems. Without these reforms, Pakistan's civil service will continue to struggle in managing resources efficiently and delivering quality public services.
Besides these, the set of Civil services rules (CSR) are also indeed of a deep cleaning and upgrade. This should be a significant step toward aligning the public sector's vision, goals, and objectives with ESTACODE; The Establishment Code (ESTACODE) of Pakistan which is essentially a comprehensive compilation of rules, regulations, and instructions that govern the management of federal government employees and public service operations.
Rules and regulations become obstacles to achieving targets and goals because they are not set at the very beginning, taking into consideration the emerging needs of service delivery. These rules are archaic and do not provide the impetus for helping do the successful civil service reforms. They need to be reviewed and made more agile and flexible without compromising the essence of legal requirements.
Moreover, the 2024 Blavatnik Index Pakistan is on 96th place in people and processes. This is alarming; it raises questions about our HR capacity and competency and our processes are outdated. In modern management, the topmost reason for people's low productivity is that organizations do not develop their leadership.
We often look outside the organization for strategic leadership. Although they are very capable and sound professionals, they do not know the culture and working behaviour of the organization.
More than 550 thousand (excluding Armed Forces) people are working in federal government organizations. Interestingly, more than 90% are BPS 16 and below grades. Most of these employees perform support functions that are less relevant in a digitized management system, reducing the need for many of these positions. But do we have the political will to reform this.
Many organizations have done it even in Pakistan. State Bank of Pakistan is one good example, and it has helped groom a class of leadership which has helped the overall financial sector to good heights.
To implement effective HR reforms and enhance overall productivity, it is essential to engage professional HR and management experts. Routine civil servants, who generally lack the specialized expertise and contemporary skills required for such initiatives, are not suited to lead these reforms.
Core areas such as job analysis, recruitment processes, performance management, and organizational change must undergo a significant shift and align with modern best practices at a delegated level, as seen in countries like Singapore. Not like FPSC doing all the labour of these processes in Pakistan.
Service rules need comprehensive revision. Critical aspects including lien policies, leave structures, transfers, training opportunities, in-service study programmes (particularly abroad), and regulations on dual nationality should be carefully reviewed and updated.
The deputation policy requires particular attention: only technocrats with specialized skills should be eligible for temporary placements in other organizations, and that too should be against an advertised requirement to give fair chance for the most suitable candidate instead of personal choices.
Clerical, administrative, and routine roles should be excluded from deputation entirely. In fact, the current practice of deputation for such positions should be discontinued at the earliest, as developing a stronger internal talent pool is a better alternative to relying on outdated deputation models. The seat whose staff has been deputed for more than six months to some other organization must be abolished.
Fundamental management principles should guide civil service reforms. The traditional concept of 'leadership by experience' is outdated and insufficient without structured development. The civil service examination system should evolve to recruit professionals and technocrats at all levels, as relying solely on seniority and experience without continuous capacity building has proven ineffective.
The public sector must adopt high-performing organizational concepts, including decentralized decision-making, where routine approvals are delegated to lower administrative levels, allowing senior officials at higher offices to focus on policy and exceptional matters. Decisions are governed by strict timelines, ensuring that every task such as licensing or service approvals must be completed within a defined period. These processes are supported by real-time data dashboards that enable evidence-based choices and operational efficiency.
A meaningful transformation of Pakistan's public sector will remain elusive unless autonomy and the delegation of authority are secured through legislation rather than left to individual discretion. Empowering institutions by law ensures that decision-making, financial control, and administrative functions operate consistently and transparently, independent of changing political or personal priorities. This legal foundation is essential for building a system that fosters efficiency, accountability, and long-term institutional strength rather than short-term personality-driven management.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025