Experts have emphasized that structural disparities between federal and provincial powers within the existing civil service framework pose a severe impediment to the performance of provincial administrations, provincial assemblies, and local governance institutions, underscoring an urgent imperative to realign civil service structures with the constitutional federal framework. To grant genuine administrative autonomy to the provinces, their administrative, financial, and human resource management systems must be aligned directly with provincial authority. Furthermore, establishing a truly functional local government system requires more than holding periodic elections; it demands the creation of a dedicated, permanent, and professionally trained local civil service cadre.
Speaking at a seminar titled “National Reform Movement”—organized by the Republic Policy think tank at the National Press Club in Islamabad—prominent experts, including former federal minister Daniyal Aziz, Pakistan Peoples Party Central Information Secretary Nadeem Afzal Chan, renowned economist Dr. Mian Iqbal, and civil rights advocate Wafee Tariq Mahmood Awan, contended that the devolution of power will remain an unfulfilled objective until local governments are granted explicit legal mandates, financial resources, administrative authority, and a dedicated civil service.
Civil service reforms must transcend superficial renamings or the creation of new service groups. Instead, they must fundamentally reorganize the state’s administrative apparatus around constitutional tenets, genuine federalism, democratic accountability, professional competency, and local self-governance. Pakistan requires a civil service designed to assist rather than supplant elected governments—one operating strictly under the rule of law to bolster the authority and autonomy of federal, provincial, and local tiers of administration. Ultimately, realizing true federalism, effective democratic governance, and a robust local government architecture remains impossible without a clear demarcation of civil services across the federal, concurrent, provincial, and local spheres.
