The Political Role of Pakistan's Civil Service

Abstract

T HE BRITISH OFTEN USED to describe the Indian Civil Service as the steel frame of the whole structure which constituted the Government of India.' Today in the Government of Pakistan the civil servants often play an even more powerful role than that of their imperial predecessors. Their ascent to power has been both steady and dramatic. Under the dominating personality of the Quaid-i-Azam (Mr. Jinnah) and his successor, Liaquat Ali Khan, the civil servants effectively controlled the entire administration in the provinces and the politicians there were kept in power subject to their willingness to obey Central Government directives. Three of the four Governors under Mr. Jinnah were British and former Indian Civil Service officers and two of these Governors presided over Cabinet meetings.2 One of them was able to reallocate portfolios without the approval of his Chief Minister. All of them wrote fortnightly letters to the Quaid-i-Azam giving a detailed account of everything ranging from intrigues in the provincial cabinets to details of refugee rehabilitation or the food problem.3 Under Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, whose authority was never as great as that of the Quaid-i-Azam, the Ceneral Government could often resort to Section 92A or use the Public and Representative Offices (Disqualification) Act, popularly known as the PRODA, to dismiss defiant or corrupt provincial politicians. Thus, under Section 92A the Provincial Legislative Assembly of West Punjab was dissolved in January I949, the Government dismissed and administration taken over by the Governor. Sind was the scene of its usual see-saw for political power between competing and intriguing politicians. Only the North-West Frontier Province was an exception, thanks to the stable but severe regime of Khan Abdul Qaiyum Khan. Politics in West