challenges to Pakistan's domestic security, The

Journal of Third World Studies, Spring 2002 by Hilali, A Z

CENTRALISATION

Pakistan has become a highly centralised and bureaucratised state.35 The bureaucracy remains dominant in the country and prides itself on being the backbone of the nation. People are still largely dependent on the state structure and official largesse. Bureaucrats have never bothered to develop any real bonds with the common people, and look upon them as aliens. This class has no credibility among the masses and intellectuals because the bureaucracy have betrayed political institutions and preferred unconstitutional and undemocratic forces and elitist prerogatives36 The dominance of the civil bureaucracy never really allowed a political culture to flourish in the country. It has emerged as a more organised and stronger institution compared to parliament and the judiciary, and the masses found themselves in the position of a colonial people.37 Its members have prestige, unquestioned authority within the law, security of jobs and progression, and more than reasonable emoluments. Their training did not encourage them to mix with the masses and other classes of society on an equal basis. They considered themselves socially and culturally superior to the common citizens.

Historically, Pakistan drew heavily on the colonial state's methods of bureaucratic control and centralisation. The Government of India Act of 1935, strengthening the very bureaucratic `steel frame' of the British empire that had been the bete noire of Indian nationalists, was adapted to serve as the constitutional framework in Pakistan.38 The institutional inheritances of colonialism, administrative as well as political, therefore, played a vital role in determining the degree of centralisation and authoritarianism in Pakistan. The administration established a Civil Service Academy (CSA) to produce officers as civil administrators, not `purely civil servants'. According to Braibanti, the trainees were "steeped in the ethos of British colonial administration".39 Mohammad Ali Jinnah (the Quaid-i-Azam, founding father of Pakistan), acknowledged the urgency of an efficient civil service in Pakistan. He strongly advised the bureaucrats to adopt a more nationalist and realistic attitude by functioning as the "servants of Pakistan".40 After his death, however, in the subsequent absence of strong political leadership, members of the Central Superior Services of Pakistan (CSSP) assumed an extraordinary role in the country's policy-making process. Since the inception of Pakistan, the country has been governed by a bureaucratic elite which, with the passage of time, gained sufficient strength to make the political elite subservient to it. The official media presented politicians as mischievous, corrupt and inefficient and civil servants as `sacred cows'.41 As Robert Laporte argued, in the Zia era, "the political leaders were episodically replaced but the power of the administrative system and the authority of the bulk of its officers remained impervious to change".42 In the late 1950s, the political stage was dominated by four civil-military bureaucrats - Ghulam Muhammad (Governor General), Chaudhary Muhammad Ali (Prime Minister), Major General Iskander Mirza (President) and General Ayub Khan (Martial Law Administrator and President), who made an utter mockery of parliamentary democracy. The military bureaucracy developed a close working alliance with the civil bureaucracy and they played a decisive and vital role in policy formulation and its execution.43 Their alliance was not merely a matter of institutional interests; military needs were always similar to those of the civil service. Iskander Mirza was appointed as Minister of Interior in Mohammad Ali Bogra's cabinet in October 1954 and General Ayub Khan, as the chief of army staff with the additional charge of the Ministry of Defence. Chaudhary Muammad Ali, a senior bureaucrat, assumed the position of Secretary General and later the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister, a role which he made the hub of the administration. Ghulam Mohammad minimised the role of the politicians and used the India I Act of 1935 to justify his illegal and immoral action in abolishing constitutional and democratic institutions.44 Punjabi and Muhajir bureaucrats also manipulated the state structure when the Ayub Khan government introduced the One-- Unit45 scheme in 1955 to counterbalance the Bengali majority and imposed parity in a future elected assembly.