Quality education is very important to develop skills and attributes required for assuming leadership roles
Zafar Iqbal Quereshi, better known as ZIC in academic circles, believes that if the country’s service sector is to be improved, without which the private and corporate sectors cannot serve as engines of growth, there is a dire need to change the entire outlook and working of the civil bureaucracy.
This is the crux of his lifelong experience as a dynamic teacher and a technocrat with a very long association with the Punjab government. His desire to put the fear of God among the leaders of public sector organisations increased after joining hands with the provincial government, which he served in various capacities but without any personal interest. Whether it was the chief minister’s advisory council, Punjab’s health and education sectors, or local governments, he has been quietly engaged in carrying out reforms, giving his best and honest input.
At present he is attached with LUMs, Lahore’s premier private sector institution, which is recognised the world over. He is heading its Assessment and Strengthening Program (ASP), in addition to establishing a Centre for Governance and Public Management to replicate the same on a much wider scale on indigenous basis. His aim is to create a state of the art institution, forming a niche especially in the region.
We had the good fortune of sitting down for an enlightening conversation with ZIC regarding his new Centre, its launch, the ASP program and the general working of Pakistan’s bureaucracy.
QUESTION: Give us some background of ASP and why you think we still need such programs?
ANSWER: I increasingly realised during my attachment with the government that civil servants utterly lack the right kind of mindset – the mindset to serve the public despite being public servants. They have a very self-centred focus with an input-oriented approach. They want more resources but are not ready for accountability. They want all kinds of budgetary allocations but are just not committed to showing any results. There is also a big question mark over their operational excellence. Hence, projects get delayed, adding to their cost.
Strengthening the public sector through quality and best practices based training of officials at the helm of important organisations and projects is a big challenge. The public sector needs to train managers to work effectively to provide efficient, transparent, and cost effective services to the citizens.
What is more important to note is that as long as your public sector is not delivering, your corporate sector cannot serve as an engine of growth, as expected by the leadership.
Strengthening the public sector through quality and best practices based training of officials at the helm of important organisations and projects is a big challenge. The public sector needs to train managers to work effectively to provide efficient, transparent, and cost effective services to the citizens. With a mission to strengthening the country’s leading institutions, USAID funded Assessment and Strengthening Program (ASP) at LUMS is training managers and officials from the public sector and civil society.
It was a five-year project starting in October 2010. I was Provost at LUMS. The project was not taking off as desired. Even USAID was not happy with its progress. So the LUMS administration requested me to take over the project. I took it as a challenge.
There was no team, no office space. After overcoming initial hiccups, within no time there was a visible turnaround. At present we are ahead of our targets.
At this forum, we have covered almost 77 districts of the country which is more than half of Pakistan. ASP-LUMS has trained over 2000 managers. MOUs with leading institutions of the country have been signed to build training capacity of the faculty to conduct similar trainings on their campuses.
Our mandate was to train civil servants. Training is being imparted in wide-ranging areas including finance, procurement and human resource management, monitoring and evaluation, project management, leadership and cultural change, development and leadership, training the trainers and communication strategy and management.
ASP-LUMS has also designed and developed courses in areas of forensic audit, fiscal decentralisation and procurement audit.
We have also developed online courses to refresh the knowledge of the civil servants. We are making sure that students from LUMS do internship in public sector organisations. We have been doing research to help out policy-makers.
For training we have largely relied upon teaching methods that were based on local traditions.
The objective was to create more result-oriented civil services.
Our mandate was to train civil servants. Training is being imparted in wide-ranging areas including finance, procurement and human resource management, monitoring and evaluation, project management, leadership and cultural change, development and leadership, training the trainers and communication strategy and management.
Q: Who are officials benefitting from the program and what is your feedback?
A: This program is meant for officials working at US-sponsored projects from public sector and NGOs. They are working on projects in governance, health, education, energy and agriculture sectors. Here we trained officials from Sindh, KPK, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Punjab keeping in mind gender balance.
The feedback from the lot trained here has been highly encouraging. Officers who never mingled with the junior staff now share with us the benefits of team work and participatory approach. The quality of intake varies. But due their background, DMG officers stood out during the training.
But due to our faulty education system, thanks to the Zia regime, quality has been compromised. Last year 12,000 candidates appeared in the competition exam. The result was not more than 2.5 per cent.
Quality education is very important to develop skills and attributes required for assuming leadership roles. And we need leaders on all levels not just at the top.
Q: What will be the mandate of Centre for Governance and Public Management?
A: In order sustain this program beyond its own life, we have laid the foundation of a new centre. It is ready for launch with an aim to develop a unique institution nicely fitting in the brand name of LUMS. Professors drawn from all-over the country will be members of its advisory council. It will award academic degree besides conducting research to influence public policy making. We will keep it open-ended as far as admissions are concerned with officials from public and NGO sectors free to join.
Q: What ails the public sector right now?
ZIC: First, the system of accountability is very weak. Officers are more power-hungry and less service-minded. Salaries are highly depressed. Performance Evaluation System is quite archaic. As such bright and talented people are more interested in the private sector.
Reforms need to be started from service delivery system. We need to develop a citizen centric approach among our leaders. The masses can benefit a lot if the reforms are carried at district level. We also need changes at policy level. The policies need to develop in accordance with circumstances.
