Can We Fix the Civil Service in Pakistan?

The civil service sits at the heart of how the state functions. From implementing public policy and delivering essential services to managing public resources and administering government programmes, the quality and effectiveness of the bureaucracy can have a profound impact on citizens’ everyday lives. Yet Pakistan’s civil service has long faced questions about institutional capacity, recruitment and promotion, political influence, accountability, incentives, performance and resistance to reform. At the same time, many civil servants continue to work within difficult institutional and administrative constraints. So what is actually wrong with the system? Are the problems primarily structural, or can they be addressed through better leadership, incentives, training and accountability? How can the civil service become more professional, responsive and capable of delivering better public services? And what reforms are realistic within Pakistan’s political and institutional context? ● About the Speakers: » Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque is an economist, author and public-policy thinker with extensive experience in economic research, development policy and institutional reform. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. He served as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of Pakistan from 2010 to 2013 and was Vice Chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) from 2019 to 2024. » Mahmood Tariq Awan is an author, civil servant and researcher with an interest in governance, public administration and federalism. He currently serves as a Research Associate at the Republic Policy Think Tank and is a serving civil servant in Punjab. He is also associated with efforts to advance the idea of administrative federalism, focusing on questions of decentralisation, governance, institutional design and the relationship between different levels of government.