Interview with Hassan Khawar (P & R Vol.2 Issue 2)

The performance of all major public sector institutions has, in fact, been deteriorating for the last 30-40 years, but I think it’s a little far-fetched to say that the civil service is the only institution that’s responsible for their failing. I think we, as a country, are failing, and everyone must share the blame: civil servants, politicians, and even other institutions like judiciary. You can look at a number of examples where each institution has played its due part in failing these institutions. Politicians do that by taking poor resource allocation decisions and by using these large public-sector enterprises to oblige their constituencies, while civil servants play their part in following through with these policies to get good postings and make their careers out of it. And judiciary has also not helped in this regard – for example, if you look at the Reko Diq case, it was a judicial decision that led to a $5.8 billion fine for Pakistan.