Though the interim set up is going to finish soon and the caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul-Haq Kakar has said that exemplary punishment would be ensured for those elements who exert pressure on the government servants.
In the current scenario of the country it seems quite difficult to take action against those who put pressure on the government servant. Here in Pakistan the entire system is running upon political recommendations and the members of national and provincial assemblies comprehend that it is their legal right to pressurize the government servants.
Whether it would be the police force, education or health departments or public service institutes or even the courts of law. No organization is safe from the curse of recommendations. The parliamentarians always put pressure on the government servants to take some specific tasks from them either in their own favour or to support their relatives, friends and workers of their party. They even exert pressure on higher authorities for the postings and appointments of their favourite officers and even low grade employees in their constituencies, so they could get the political advantage of presence of their loyal civil servants in their areas.
The members of the parliament are on one side, even the local leaders of the ruling party deem their duty to put pressure on the district administration and public service departments for pulling development projects to their concerned areas to show their authority and impress the general public.
As a matter of fact, political interference is the beginning point of corrupt practices in the government departments. The culture of the references has penetrated so much in the whole system that the educated youth from the middle class cannot even get the job without recommendations from some political leader or any high-up, which is very unfortunate.
It has become the mentality of the political leadership of the country that when they are in power, they want to take control of each and every government department by hook and crook and for this purpose they pressurize the government servants.
Majority of the government servants take the pressure from the political leader as a routine matter because they think that it is a part of the game. As expedient measures, they do not want to go against rulers.
But a few upright officials are there, who do not accept any pressure from outside and decide every official matter on the voice of their conscience. But in result they would have to go through with different kinds of problems throughout their service, such as frequent transfers to far flung areas and postings at overburdened slots. Sometimes they would have to face inquiries or litigations in the courts. The law in Pakistan has some bottlenecks by which the honest officers, who do not admit pressure at all, are trapped on the behest of the elements in power.
Another type of pressure which is exerted on the government servants from the influential circles is on the particular juncture of time like holding elections to get the required results from them.
Sometimes the officer, who worked under pressure, would have to break silence on inner compression of conscience as the nation witnessed in the recent past that former Commissioner of Rawalpindi division not only left the job, but also uttered about the rigging in the polls. Similarly, in the past a judge of the high court had also spoken about facing pressure from peculiar corners and he had to resign from his post. Actually those who work according to morality and maintain their integrity always face dire consequences such as retirement without pensionary benefits, because the corrupt system is so strong that it cannot tolerate the straightforward officers.