Cabinet Division\u2019s latest report has revealed that the bureaucracy has not implemented 400 directives of Prime Minister Mian Mohamed Nawaz Sharif. The case is even worse for the orders of President Mamnoon Hussain as the bureaucracy executed only one of his numerous orders. This surely portrays an image of an unresponsive bureaucracy, which is not willing to accommodate its elected bosses. And given the general perception of an all-powerful Pakistani bureaucracy, this revelation would only further serve to give credence to this view. On the other hand, there are observers who are claiming that the bureaucracy is witnessing its downfall in the current neoliberal climate, and, consequently, the sphere of influence of elected officials is increasing. As is most often the case, the truth lies somewhere in between these two statements, as while in the area of economic policy, a shift is being observed through call for smaller government, but the bureaucracy still holds the same, albeit less concentrated, powers of control vis-\u00e0-vis the public. This decreased economic role means that the bureaucracy\u2019s relations with the business class is less important, but still substantial, while its powers of control give it, in addition to direct Weberian power, much social capital, and hence make it a class that elected officials want to be on good terms with.
\nThis leaves the question of whether the bureaucracy should be watered down to make it more docile vis-\u00e0-vis elected officials or it should rather be strengthened and made relatively autonomous. The answer to this is not as straightforward as it may first appear to be. It is absolutely true that it is elected representatives who are are entrusted by the public to run the affairs of government and it is the public that will eventually pass verdict on their performance. This alone grants legitimacy to the entire system of government, and under this the bureaucracy is merely the machinery of the state to enable the elected officials to run the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cabinet Division\u2019s latest report has revealed that the bureaucracy has not implemented 400 directives of Prime Minister Mian Mohamed Nawaz Sharif. The case is even worse for the orders of President Mamnoon Hussain as the bureaucracy executed only one of his numerous orders. This surely portrays an image of an unresponsive bureaucracy, which is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"yoast_head":"\n