Bureaucracy is the Real and Permanent Ruler of Pakistan, Accountability Never Reached Them: Khawaja Asif
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif has labeled the bureaucracy the “real rulers” of Pakistan, noting that politicians and other ruling classes have been held accountable from time to time during the country’s 78-year history, but not the bureaucracy.
Although there are many cases of accountability against the government actors including politicians, Khawaja Asif said that there was hardly any precedent in the history of Pakistan which could be compared with holding the bureaucracy accountable for alleged financial corruption.
The Defense Minister recalled the attitude of one of the past bureaucratic rulers, “who used to use languages that were very derogatory in their presence” for politicians, and they would have to endure them. If the bureaucrats who served in the past 78 years as ministers and advisors are added up, he said, it adds up to a lot.
The Bureaucracy which is empowered due to the weakness of the politicians.
If the bureaucracy today has become the untouchable class, answerable to nobody, it is politicians only who are to blame, while the bureaucrats are only the beneficiaries, Khawaja Asif added.
He remembered that the policies of nationalization adopted in the 1970s allowed the bureaucracy to take over all the business enterprises of the nation and continue the process of ruining the state’s assets, with no government questioning these powerful and opaque forces.
The Minister said if the losses caused due to nationalisation were counted then the disaster could be even worse than the fall of Dhaka, and he added that the zeros needed to count the economic losses might not be enough. He pointed to the ongoing government plan of privatisation, and wished it success.
The history of the region and its wealth abroad.The history of the area and wealth abroad.
In the first place, Nawaz Sharif was the first leader who, successfully, tried to reverse the devastation of the nationalization policy, which was later taken forward by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. He, however, said that the momentum thereafter faltered because barriers were put in place by a permanent bureaucratic ruling class. He commended the current policy of privatisation being followed by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
In his concluding speech, Khawaja Asif said the rich people who have connections with the bureaucracy have assets in Portugal, Canada, the USA, the United Kingdom and Pakistan and have benefited from the short-sightedness of politicians.