The PM’s Secretariat
In announcing Pakistan’s official advent into the nuclear world, the PM took into cognizance that sanctions would require considerable sacrifices from the people. As a symbolic gesture the PM announced that he was immediately leaving the ostentatious newly occupied monstrosity that goes by the name of the PM’s Secretariat and that he expected everyone to do his (or her) bit for austerity. Better said than done, Mr PM, for a people used to a life of luxury, at least in the affluent class the meaning of the word “sacrifice” is lost in implementation.
To return to the PM’s imperial Secretariat, the shocking news that followed was that they were looking for a suitable alternate accommodation to house the large staff. One may well ask the PM, why, in the presence of the already bloated Ministries he needs an alternative governing mechanism? An entity like the PM’s Secretariat is only required when rulers need to circumvent the Ministries (and therefore the rules and regulations that Ministries are mandated to uphold), who incidentally also happen to be the PM’s men. As we saw in Zia’s Martial Law, a huge HQ set up becomes a bureaucratic yoke, it can barely pass muster in a Presidential set up, so why does any democracy need an organism that tends to downgrade the working of the Ministries?
The PM should immediately abolish the concept of the PM’s Secretariat and work out of the PM’s House. In order to have a command and control set-up, what he can have is a PM’s Coordination Council (PCC) that must incorporate the concept of a Central Control Room (CCR) that works around the clock. The PCC can be headed by a Secretary-status Officer with an Additional Secretary as his Deputy. The PCC can then have a representative Joint Secretary and three Deputy Secretaries on deputation from each of the Provinces and each important Ministry i.e. Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Commerce, Interior, Communications, Water and Power, Information, with one Joint Secretary and three Deputy Secretaries looking collectively after the other Ministries. The ISI and IB should provide four equivalent rank officers each. These people will be divided for work in 8 hour shifts i.e. 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, 4:30 pm to 12:30 am and 12:30 am to 8:30 am. The Joint Secretaries will necessarily work in the morning shift with one PA and one Steno each, while one each of the Deputy Secretaries in the afternoon and night shifts, one Deputy Secretary being in reserve to provide relief in case of sickness, holidays, etc. Each shift will have direct access to the CCR to be manned by the Armed Forces with a person of not less than the rank of a Lt. Col as in charge of the CCR with three Majors and ancillary staff to maintain maps and communications to assist him. At any one time, other than the inherent CCR manning staff there will thus be about 15-18 personnel at the most in close proximity of the CCR who can coordinate not only what the PM may require from their parent Ministries but also be available to the PM to give him an immediate briefing concerning their own Ministries whether in his own office or the CCR. This job will include preparation of “Daily Situation Reports” as to the extraordinary events in their domain of work as well as the progress in their own particular Ministries for various schemes/projects. The night shift will be responsible for a draft of the Daily Situation Report, which will be finalised not later than 9:00 am everyday (i.e. the morning shift). At the same time, the Provinces and the Ministries would know whom to contact in the PCC to send information to as and when required. With computers and adequate communications, the PCC set-up gives the PM necessary command and control while streamlining procedures and operations. It reduces personnel drastically while enhancing efficiency.
The whole PCC set-up can then be housed in a modular-type building with the CCR in the middle and each ministerial entity having a suite of two/three rooms of about a 1000-1200 sq ft each including a moderate-sized cubicle for the Minister whenever he is visiting the PM House. There can be an attached cafeteria for meals and at least 3-4 small conference rooms that can also function as private dining rooms if some guests need to be given meals, which (in any case) should be a rare occasion. There is no need for Peons (or Naib Qasids in exalted language), give each office Suite an electric tea kettle, a coffee percolator, etc and let them make tea/coffee themselves. The three shifts together will have a maximum of 80-100 people (of all ranks), the 30-35 personnel in each shift will be work-oriented. I had once recommended that Asif Zardari’s famous stables in the PM House could easily be converted into a PCC of about 20000 sq ft, costing (even at Rs.1000 per sq ft) not more than Rs.20 million. Consider even the funds presently allocated for daily maintenance and you can appreciate the difference. The maintenance should not be more than Rs. 2-3 million per month including cost of electricity, telephones, etc. Moreover except for the formal area in the PM’s House, the funny courtier uniforms should be dispensed with, they are symbolic of the luxury of imperial rule.
With all due respects the present functioning of the PM’s Secretariat is the main reason for the inefficiency and corruption in government. Instead of looking at the Ministries for getting the work done, everyone looks at the PM’s Secretariat, who in turn have become a sort of super-government as each bureaucrat posted therein seeks to increase his own clout and in that expand his own little empire. The result was that we had to have that monstrosity next to the Supreme Court so as to house the small army. Each small bureaucrat in the PM’s Secretariat has become a petty tyrant since he just has to use the magic words of “the PM’s Secretariat” to bully/coerce Ministries to toe his line, most of the time to do such bidding which may not be related to PM’s actual desires.
May I ask the PM a direct question? As a private sector person, would he have a commensurate unwieldy organisation to run Ittefaq’s Corporate HQ? Even one-tenth the size would still be too many! The main reason his Ministries do not function is because their work has been usurped by the PM’s Secretariat in an imperious, haphazard and uncoordinated manner. The essence of good management is good information and coordination backed by good communication, the leaner the staff the more focussed on their actual work. One can never stop being amazed by the fact that government does not begin functioning till well after 9:00 am and ceases to function at 4:00 pm when any country requires a 24-hour vigil mechanism at far less the cost than what we are incurring today. There is no concept of institutionalised crisis management of any kind.
Well done, Mr PM, for moving the staff out of the PM’s Secretariat, move them now to their parent Ministries so that they can actually be productive for the government you have been mandated by the people to run. Well done, for changing the Mercedes for a Toyota, now Junejo-like put everyone below the rank of Federal Secretary in a Suzuki. You might like to see how brother Shahbaz runs his domain in Punjab, the largest province, with a few Staff Officers in constant touch with the Ministries to ensure they are doing their job of running the machinery of government efficiently. The PCC needed by you has to be a combination information cell, crisis management HQ and an electric prod to keep things moving. Unless you dismantle the bloated PM’s Secretariat and put together a lean, efficient core of management that is hands-on 24 hours a day, the symbolic gesture you made for austerity on May 28 to meet the anticipated sanctions will become another symbol in frustration at big government doing not much at the present and capable of doing not much in the future. The people have great expectations in you, you can only become great when you practice economy in making their expectations come true.
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