A human being is a set of complex biological processes better left for the doctors to explore & explain. The energy converting mechanism, however, is quite simple; we eat plants & meat and our enzymes break them down and convert them to energy along with waste product. In Pakistan, we have a machine that converts the waste product into cotton candy. Or so some people would like you to believe. This very intricate machine is called “Passing the Central Superior Service (CSS) exam”.
Every year, thousands of out-of-job professionals (OOJPs) having completed their bachelors compete for 200 seats in the coveted government institutions. Once an OOJP passes the hurdle of CSS Exam (& interview) he is sent to Pakistan Civil Services academy for further training before being assigned to his respective administrative block.
While we continue to (now quite verbally) call out the army for its involvement in Pakistan’s politics and foreign policy and the apparent “deals” of the politicians with the said institution, there’s one that always escapes the wrath of our journalists. The institution is the “establishment” that is at the core of the army's control over the running of Pakistan.
Apparently, Mr. Khan, just before he was sent back to the pavilion, sent out an order to replace a certain someone with another certain someone. The Defence Ministry, instead of issuing the summary, passed on the message to the former certain someone who then apparently took a helicopter ride to the PM house that ended up costing much more than the Rs. 55/KM that Mr. Fawad Chaudhry so infamously claimed.
The point here, dear readers, is that it is the convolution of the army and the bureaucracy that’s at the helm of the delusional militarized democracy we’ve found ourselves in since before my parents conceived of bringing me into this world. All the democratic governments that have been brought, have been so after a clear boundary line has been defined for them. Be it Bhuttos, Sharifs or Khans. And the Army's tool for keeping them in check has always been the bureaucracy.
The same out-of-job professionals (OOJPs) or cotton candy producers. These bureaucrats have the world at their feat once they enter their offices of work. The perks and pay, although limited at the start (but still much higher than what their counterparts in non governmental jobs) pay dividends as their cotton candy producing skills are polished. If you get the opportunity to meet any of these top office holders, you will realise that they are party to the same “bloody civilian” mentality that we many a times associate with the armed forces of our country. The word servant in their title of “Civil Servants” applies to anyone who is unlucky enough to have to cross paths with these cotton candy producers.
You spend a couple of minutes with these men and you would instantly realise the air of superiority they carry around themselves. Their “signatures” hold power. While there are obviously (s)elected ministers, they are mostly detracted with political cat & mouse chase. For instance, Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, royal Bhutto blood he may be, I cannot buy into the fact that a man as young as him is leading this country’s “independent” foreign policy. It definitely is the army pulling the strings with the bureaucracy at the other end. And by definitely, I mean speculatively.. Ofcourse, being a bloody civilian, I have no access to anything or anyone other than the daily Dawn Newspaper. You may disregard my thoughts as “pure fiction”.
While there are a few good men, most are worried about their names on the plaque boards and keeping in the good books of the powers that be. In a way, they’re in a constant “Catch-22”. Be it this government or that, many of them will, at some point, get a good transfer and at another, a bad transfer and hence these bureaucrats are affiliated with many political parties as well. Work for Khan and Sharif punishes you. Work for Sharif and Bhutto punishes you. That is why we see transfers after transfers once one political government transfers power to another. Some become casualties, some are untouchables. Untouchables in the same way that they’re in a different league to the rest of the society but different in the sense that they produce cotton candy.