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Bureaucracy and Public Management Reforms: Evidence from Pakistan

Competent and professional bureaucracy is behind the good functioning of any government. The study examines the performance of Pakistani bureaucracy by using historical reports and semi-structured interviews, as well as by reviewing the literature. This study consists of six parts. Part one describes the introduction to new public management and bureaucracy; part two discusses the bureaucratic history of Pakistan; part three is about theoretical insights. Part four is about methodology. Part five presents interview analysis and discussion; part six concludes the

Competent and professional bureaucracy is behind the good functioning of any government. The study examines the performance of Pakistani bureaucracy by using historical reports and semi-structured interviews, as well as by reviewing the literature. This study consists of six parts. Part one describes the introduction to new public management and bureaucracy; part two discusses the bureaucratic history of Pakistan; part three is about theoretical insights. Part four is about methodology. Part five presents interview analysis and discussion; part six concludes the

Introduction
The New Public Management (NPM) has been widely discussed and debated after the seminal contribution of Hood (1991Hood ( , 1995 capturing the attention in the field of public administration. Verbeeten and Spekle (2015) define NPM as a "set of beliefs, doctrines, and codified experiences that collectively serve as a frame of reference in the evaluation and redesign of the public sector" Hood (1991) and Pollitt (2002) argue that this frame of reference varies over time and across countries. Arellano-Gault andLepore (2011), O'Reilly andReed (2011) and Townley, Cooper and Oakes (2003) describe NPM as "a quest for economic rationality and a strong trust in market-based discipline, managerial control, and hands-on management". Several studies have discussed the NPM reforms programme (Levy, 2010;Osborne, 2006Osborne, , 2010Dunleavy, Margetts, Bastov & Tinkler, 2005). Hood (1991Hood ( , 1995 described NPM based on his observations from the UK during the 1980s. Hyndman and Lapsley (2016) explained that the main emphasis of NPM was on market-like structures, private sector management styles, frugality, focus on measurement, and result-oriented controls. Pollitt (2001) found that by adopting NPM, values have shifted from universalism and equity towards efficiency and individualism. Similarly,  emphasized the importance of markets and market-based systems. Christensen and Laegried (2007) and Van Thiel and Pollitt (2007) argue that NPM is very flexible and can change according to circumstances. However, Van Thiel and Pollitt (2007) and Andrews (2010) document that the basic idea of NPM remains the same. The local context of NPM may change according to the specific nature of the policies adopted. The theory of new institutional economics with a particular focus on public choice, transaction cost theory, principal-agent theory, and neo-scientific oriented management studies shaped the thinking about NPM (Hood, 1991). McCann, Hassard, Granter and Hyde (2015) argue that lean management is a perfect example of neo-scientific oriented management studies. Pollit (2016) argues that managerialism is the heart of administrative practice and public service. Managerialism is the particular branch of NPM that deals with the performance and control of the public sector.
The bureaucratic structure of Pakistan follows the Westminster model of government. Pakistan was under British colonial rule and it has had profound effects on the bureaucracy of Pakistan. Cultural and colonial legacies have a strong influence on the way civil servants and public institutions function in South Asia (Jamil, Askvik, & Hossain, 2013). The Indian Civil Service has the best administrative machinery because it has the characteristics of impersonality, neutrality, dedication, high ethical standards, and esprit de corps. Sabharwal and Berman (2013) argue that the ICS resembles the legal-rational authority system identified by Max Weber. They further state that bureaucracy has the characteristics of merit-based recruitment and promotion, hierarchy, fixed salary, the separation between private and official life, impersonal order (official functions bound by rules), tenure of service, and stability.
However, the culture of give and take is rather common in the bureaucratic system of Pakistan and other south Asian countries (Jamil, Dhakal & Paudel, 2019). Elitism has been a hallmark of the Pakistani administrative system. There have been several reforms since the independence whose emphasis was on representative bureaucracy, i.e. on allotting more decision-making powers to bureaucrats and civil servants. Post-independence reforms also focused on reducing elitism among different public services so they could be more citizen-centric and more responsive to the needs of society (Jamil, Dhakal, & Paudel, 2019). The Pakistani bureaucracy has faced severe upheavals due to its highly unstable and corrupt political system. So far, there have been four periods of martial law interchanged with weak democratic governments based on self-interest instead of national interest. That is why the system was more inclined towards corruption, nepotism, incompetence, and injustice (Shahzad, 2017). Government instability has caused poor bureaucratic performance.
Each government has identified their team among bureaucrats, who remained on top administrative positions during their respective tenures.
These people are experts in running government affairs and they know how to cash the rulers. Their controversial standing has stigmatized their role of loyalty to their country. Until today, each government in Pakistan has announced reforms, but they resulted in no change and the circumstances remained the same (LaPorte, 1981). The reform programmes failed to be implemented correctly, which increased the incompetence of public sector employees who were unable to deliver results. The main reason for this is political interference. Bajwa and Ansari (2018) argue that Pakistani bureaucracy usually follows the will of political masters (ministers). Aminullah (2012) argues that the very heart of bureaucracy needs reset, which is only possible through the will of government. The aim of this study is to present a detailed analysis of the Pakistani bureaucracy in the light of new public management reforms.
The first part of the study discusses the historical overview of the Pakistani bureaucracy. It is followed by theoretical insights in part two, while part three presents the methods of gathering and analysing data. Results and discussion are given in part four and part five concludes the study.

Historical Overview of the Pakistani Bureaucracy
After gaining independence, Pakistan inherited weak and inexperienced political leadership that was expected to manage the affairs of the new state. However, the civil service immediately started to perform their role as the British trained them. Gorvine (1965) noted that civil servants began to work on the long list of monolithic tasks faced by the government. These included maintenance of law and order, settlement of refugees, allotment of land, and establishment of a fully functional system of the sovereign state despite having administrative difficulties such as shortage of offices and trained human resources. Braibanti (1966) argued that the most severe problem Pakistan faced after independence was the shortage of managerial talent. He stated that 1,157 employees were working in the Indian Civil Services (ICS). Only 157 employees joined the civil services in Pakistan, including 95 Muslims. LaPalombara (1963) documented that only 9 per cent of Muslims joined ICS during 1947. The main reason for the low representation of Indian Muslims in ICS was traditional and anti-western education stance. Ziring and LaPorte (1974) and Sayeed (1958) mentioned that several British officers were hired on certain cru-cial positions like the Secretary Establishment and the three Provincial Governors to fill in this gap. However, despite serious problems, civil servants started to work without offices and official buildings across Karachi. Huntington (1968) documented that the Pakistani bureaucracy provided leadership and security and due to their hard work, Pakistan managed to perform well in the first 90 days after independence. Pakistani public administration was politically pressured for favours right after its independence. However, Quaid-e-Azam established specific rules of administrative functioning that removed the fear of political pressure.
The expansion of government also demanded the recruitment of numerous officials in various government departments. The criteria for selection of these bureaucrats were quite lax as there was lenience with regard to qualifications and age. It went so far that the candidates were selected without any competitive exams (Iqbal, 2014). The chosen candidates would be promoted quickly. The quota reserved for provinces further undermined the merit of civil servants during the selection process. The unfortunate death of Quaid-e-Azam (founder of Pakistan) provided an opportunity for politicians to interfere in state affairs (Ahmed, 1970). The first-ever trial of civil servants was held in 1952, when 735 civil servants were prosecuted on charges of corruption, hoarding, and black marketing (Iqbal, 2014). Ahmed (1970) and Musarrat and Azhar (2012) argue that this was the first time when the character and prestige of Pakistani civil servants was contaminated by the prevalence of nepotism and favouritism in the civil service. Since then, Pakistani public administration has not regained respect and the public has continued to perceive it as an unresponsive, ineffective, and corrupt institution (ICG, 2010). President Iskander Mirza suspended 303 Class-I officers (including senior officers) on charges of misconduct, misuse of power, and corruption in 1969. Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto forcibly dismissed 1,300 bureaucrats in 1971 on the charges of misconduct and corruption. He introduced a class system (Class-I to Class-V) to public administration (mandarins), unrivalled in its arrogance and snobbery (Kaushik, 1985). Z. A. Bhutto initiated a comprehensive bureaucratic reforms programme in 1973, and later numerous attempts were made by various governments to improve the bureaucratic performance. However, the performance of bureaucracy keeps on deteriorating because of corruption, red-tape, and financial burden (Iqbal, 2014). The primary reason behind the failure of bureaucratic reforms is political instability and weak political will (Memon, Memon, Memon, & Shaikh, 2011). Jamil, Dhakal and Paudel,  Table 1 lists the reform programmes introduced by both autocratic and democratic governments to improve the quality and performance of public administration. However, the reform programmes mostly failed due to frequent changes of political-military regimes. Polidano (2001) argues that the reforms failed either because of unsatisfactory results or because these programmes were never implemented. Consistent with Polidano's (2001) analysis, we can conclude that not a single Pakistani reform programme has been completed in its entirety. Wilder (2009) and Bajwa and Ansari (2018) mention that in the last seven decades, different gov-ernment commissions have issued more than twenty studies concerning administrative reforms. However, only few recommendations have been implemented to curb the bureaucracy. Table 2 presents the pattern of government switchovers in Pakistan.  (2014) The emphasis of the administrative reform programme introduced in 1971 was on reformation, reorganization, and organization of the public sector, including its size, structure, pay, scale, powers and authority, etc. A major reform initiative was the nationalization of private corporations and putting bureaucracy under the control of political leadership by amending the constitution (Iqbal, 2014). The public sector could not reap the modernizing benefits of globalization. Various changes in government also affected the economic growth, which set the path for international assistance. Pakistan also initiated the NPM reforms programme during the 1990s to improve the performance of the public sector and recover from fiscal imbalances. However, the government altered its existing role to facilitate and reduce the cost and size of public administration to exit from markets through deregulation and privatization. The different governments also promoted private sector practices by adopting managerialism policy to enhance the performance and efficiency of public sector employees. These reform programmes changed the traditional concept of nationalism by promoting innovation, privatization, and decentralization. During the 2000s, the military-led government of Pakistan paid particular attention to modernizing the public sector under the agenda of good governance in cooperation with international developing partners.
Similarly, the democratic government also works hard for the betterment of the administrative system. The current government has introduced the use of Information Communication Technologies to improve the performance of public sector employees. Consequently, the institutional reforms aim to accelerate the economic growth and alleviate poverty through better tax administration, devolution of power to local governments, procurement, and financial management. Pakistan has initiated administrative reforms several times, but they failed to produce the desired results. There are numerous reasons behind the failure. The main reason is that the NPM model was not in line with the social, geographic, political, and economic circumstances of the country. Most of the time, Pakistan borrowed the elements of the NPM model from the US and Europe. Even today it is following the European model. Therefore, the main reason behind the country's struggling with the public service reform is the lack of an indigenous NPM model that would encompass its socio-political, economic, and geographic values.
The other reasons include political and government interests, chosen type of government change, and the resistance of the civil service. The government have shown interest in the civil service management reforms, but it was only to convince the intellectual circle that they were vested in making changes. In reality, the government's goal was either to serve their political interest or merely to plan for spending their mandate without doing too much work. Serving in a public office establishes a change-resistant mindset. The change of attitude is a gradual and time-consuming process. Therefore, it is necessary to build change culture in a well-thought and programmed manner.

Theoretical Insights
This study follows Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy and the New Public Management approach to provide theoretical insights. The mix of the two is used because the first deals with the very foundation of bureaucracy and the second is a more advanced, up-to-date, and applied version of modern-day public management. Max Weber believed bureaucracy to be the most essential and efficient way of establishing an organization and administration. Weber preferred bureaucracy to the traditional structures.
In a bureaucratic organization, every employee has a well-defined role. These organizations followed highly systematic procedural and standardized rules and regulations. In bureaucratic organizations, promotions and rewards are performance-, skills-, and qualifications-based (Mulder, 2017). Weber's theory of bureaucracy has six essential principles, i.e. task specialization, hierarchical authority, formal selection, rules and regulations, impersonality, and career orientation.
In the 1980s, the United Kingdom (UK), the USA, and Australia adopted NPM in order to improve the public sector efficiency. It is a private sector management model that puts citizens in the centre of concern of all the public services. This approach believes in networking, teamwork, and decentralization (Hood & Jackson, 1991;Hood, 1991). Osborne and Gaebler (1992) claimed that by the NPM principles, the role of government should be steering towards the provision of public services; it should be community-oriented and provide competition opportunities for its citizens, and the government should enforce and implement rules via the creation of agencies. However, Osborne and Plastrik (2000) argued that these principles were subsequently reduced and converted into an implementation plan with elements of consequences, core, control, customers, and culture. Dunn and Miller (2007) argue that NPM provides solutions for different issues, ideas, and reform recipes and provide several reasons for the failure of NPM in developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of the Independent States. These reasons are external and internal conflicts, and a hyper-pluralistic political party system. The civil services in these countries suffer from ethnicity issues, poor systems of healthcare and education, inadequate economic and environmental regulation, and weak economies under the influence of the World Bank and IMF. Dunn and Miller (2007) further stated that NPM neglected the broader governmental, political, socio-cultural contexts while emphasizing the improvement of management functions called "managerialism". NPM does not intend to replace the Weberian bureaucratic model. Drechsler (2005) argues that NPM reforms have failed to achieve their objectives of making more efficient and effective public sector organizations set by American and British advocates.
A new administrative approach called the Neo-Weberian State (NWS) has emerged in Europe to challenge the concept of NPM. Pollitt and Bouckaert (2004) identified the features of NWS. The NWS redefines the role of countries and provides the solution to the problems that arose through technological change, environmental threat, globalization, and shifting demographics. It also reaffirms the legitimate role of the state as representative of democracy at the central, regional, and local levels and it re-confirms the role of administrative law in providing equality, legal security, and specialized judicial scrutiny of state actions. It preserves the idea of public service with a distinctive status, culture, and terms and conditions. The NWS follows the external orientation of bureaucratic rules that fulfils the citizens' needs and wishes by adopting a professional lifestyle of quality and service. It ensures representative democracy and a range of devices for consultation and recording citizens' views. The NWS also emphasizes the role of the state in modernization of the laws for disbursement of government resources so that maximum benefit can be achieved by using minimum resources.

Methods
This study uses qualitative semi-structured interviews to examine its objective empirically. Bradford and Cullen (2012) argue that qualitative semi-structured interviews are one of the most widely used and dominant methods of data collection within social sciences. Flick (2009) claims that semi-structured interviews are valuable as they permit researchers to identify subjective viewpoints and collect in-depth information from people's experiences. Choak (2012) argues that semi-structured interviews use the interview schedule, which enables researchers to address a defined topic and allow the respondents to answer in their own words and discuss issues and problems pertinent to them. He further mentions that the interview schedule should guide the interviewee and develop relevant themes throughout the interview. There should be a flow in conversation (Choak, 2012;Rubin & Rubin, 2005). Semi-structured interviews are popular in social sciences and reflect their independence from a single epistemological position or theoretical framework. Braun and Clarke (2006) argue that qualitative semi-structured interviews used to consider experiences, meanings, and reality of participant's skills to explore how assumptions inform these experiences, facts, implications, and discourses or ideas that exist within the broader society. Keller and Conradin (2019) claim that conducting semi-structured interviews requires proper identification of respondents (known as key-informants), thoughtful planning and preparation for interviews.
In any semi-structured interview, it is crucial to determine the saturation point of data as it specifies the comprehensive process of data collection and analysis (Majid, Othman, Mohamad, & Lim, 2018). Glaser and Strauss (1967) argue that the saturation point has been achieved when no new insights or data emerges from interviews. Similarly, Charmaz (2006) argues that the saturation point has been reached when no new codes are generated from interviews, and the collected data do not offer new insights. A study by Bavik (2016) shows that 18 interviews have occurred to reach the point of saturation. There have been 27 civil servants interviewed for this study because of similarity in recruitment procedures and office environment. We achieved data saturation after the 24 th interview. The semi-structured interviews have been done directly with the field experts by following the snowball sampling technique. The samples were selected from the employees in the Pakistani federal civil service, occupying positions of grade 17 and above, and further divided within departments/ ministries as section officers, assistant directors, deputy secretaries, directors, joint secretaries, director generals, additional secretaries, and secretaries. The list of shortlisted questions is available in Appendix 1. We have identified several themes for further analysis during the interview to assess the performance of civil servants. These themes include demographic information, information about recruitment policy, syllabus and examinations of competitive exams, human resource development, performance management/reward system in their organizations, accountability and penalization, evaluation criteria, remunerations standards, available perks and privileges, and other problems like political interference and corruption, etc. Table 3 shows the demographic information of key respondents included in the analysis. The key-informant interviewees are ten section officers, two assistant directors, four deputy secretaries, two directors, two joint secretaries, three director generals, two additional secretaries, and two secretaries. The demographic statistics show that civil servants have a different level of education, ranging from BA to PhD degrees, and they are specialized in various fields including social sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, management, and natural sciences.

Thematic Analysis
The semi-structured interviews provided in-depth, relevant information from federal civil servants employed in different ministries/departments. These civil servants had different academic levels and specializations. Surprisingly, their education level did not match the positions' demands. For instance, some of them with bachelor degrees in medical sciences, pharmaceutical science, and engineering sciences serve in the department of finance and commerce. Furthermore, a person with a PhD and a person with a BA degree both work at the same level. Some government employees work in departments that do not match their level of education and professional competency. The respondents often agree about the problems that hinder the administrative performance.
The respondents have highlighted several issues that affect the performance and overall efficiency. The problems identified with regard to the poor performance include the problems with recruitment and selection processes, training and development programmes, remuneration system, low salaries, political interference, poor accountability and transparency system, no apparent performance indicators such as retirement age and benefits and other perks and privileges, etc. Table 4 provides the rankings of the reasons behind poor performance, as suggested by respondents. The respondents agree that bureaucratic performance is poor, and they mentioned that the main reason for that is political interference. Political actors interfere in the structure and functions of public administration. This finding is also supported by Iqbal (2014), who mentioned that strong political influence has characterised the Pakistani public administration since independence. The second problem highlighted by respondents is corruption. They indicated that corruption in administration is caused by political interference. Ministers allow corruption because they depend on civil servants. They usually form their teams or engage individual civil servants in order to protect their interests. Knowing this mechanism, civil servants also feel confident to get their share.
Quality human resource management practices are essential for the survival of an organization in the modern era. The interviewees somewhat agree with the statement. However, they are more inclined to the traditional seniority-based promotions and reward system. The respondents believe that crucial elements of public administration are teh hierarchical structure, the centralization of power, rules and regulations, and divided responsibilities. They are attracted by the power structure, status in society, attractive salaries, perks, and privileges.
The respondents have been asked about the recruitment and selection process and they are aware of the differences between political and professional recruitment. They notice that there are issues with regard to the required academic qualifications, lack of transparency in entrance exams, and required work experience. They have biased views about their own selection process as everyone claims they have been selected on merit. There are various deviations: person with MSc degree works at the position requiring a bachelor's degree; someone without required specialisation holds a specialist post; a medical degree holder works in the customs department, etc. The respondents also mention that salaries equal to those in the private sector are essential. That would curb corruption in the civil service. Such a salary system would provide incentives for retention of quality personnel in public administration and prevent civil service's human capital loss. The respondents claim that their salaries are meagre, and sometimes they are pressured to accept bribes and other arrangements that interfere with their duties.
The respondents have suggested several measures for improvement. These include merit-based recruitment and selection, specialized educational schemes, and training aimed at developing specialized skills. They suggest salaries equal to those in the private sector in order to avoid corruption. They also propose depoliticisation and eradication of nepotism. They recommend the improvement of the policy and legal frameworks that should have adequate policies, rules, regulations, procedures, in order to ensure transparency and accountability. Performance should be gauged against standardized parameters. Corruption must be punished. Retirement age should be raised from 60 to 65 years to get the maximum from the experienced officials. Etc.
According to the respondents, the reasons behind the failed reforms are lack of political will, political interference, corrupt management, nepo-tism, elitism, favouritism, status quo, and class differences among employees (Central Superior Services aspirants and non-CSS aspirants).
Most of them claim that lack of ideas or recommendations is not the cause of reform failure. Instead, they believe that there is a lack of reform implementation capacity. Most of administrative leaders are inclined to put their personal interests ahead of national, which is a hindrance to reforms. Moreover, the civil service is reluctant to accept the changes. Shafqat (1999) argues that proper leadership and teamwork can ensure the efficient and active role of bureaucracy.

Conclusion
Pakistan has introduced numerous social, economic, and administrative reforms to equate the country with the dynamic, competent world. Public management reform agenda has remained every government's key concern. Reforms were necessary because the public administration system and structure were inherited from the colonial masters and mainly designed to serve them (Khan & Zia, 2014), being unfit in a free country. Several administrative reforms lacked the desired results. The reason was that the government failed to create an indigenous public management model that would answer the social, political, economic, and geographic circumstances of the country. Instead, Pakistan introduced a borrowed NPM model that did not fit to the country.
The political instability has not created a favourable reform environment. There have been frequent changes of democratic governments and dictatorships. Every government has promoted its interests, causing the frequent changes in governmental institutions. It paved the way for corruption and incompetence in public administration, decreasing its policy-making and implementation capacities.
The analysis of historical experiences and respondents' views suggests the need for creation of a viable and flexible public management model harmonized with the country's needs and circumstances, based on the neo Weberian and NPM models. The current government has planned to reform public administration. It has established the reform task force led by Ishrat Husain, an adviser to the Prime Minister and a former State Bank governor. Considering the importance of public administration for the country's development, it is necessary to develop a skilled, well equipped, and technically sound bureaucracy.

Summary
The paper examines administrative performance and public management reforms in Pakistan. The study is based on the expert opinion of the civil servants gathered via 27 semi-structured interviews. Pakistan has inherited the administrative structure from the British colonial raj. Although there have been numerous reforms aimed at improving administrative performance, none of them have been implemented adequately. The changes pursued in the first two decades were related to enhancing the administrative performance by creating an adequate structure of administrative posts and ensuring a fair remuneration system. The first full reform package was presented in the 1970s with steps to improve the civil service performance and nationalization of significant banks and industries. The New Public Management (NPM) inspired the Pakistani government to adopt the policies of managerialism and privatization during the 1990s. The government intended to remove the status quo and privatize the public sector industries. This reform was successful only with regard to the privatization of some sectors and banks. The remaining reform programme failed mostly because of political instability, weak political will, political interference with the reform process, etc. The semi-structured interviews conducted with Pakistani civil servants tackled the public administration problems and their possible solutions. The respondents suggested that an indigenous public management model should be created.
They indicated that the government should firmly support the implementation of reform measures. Civil servants should get salaries according to their expertise. There must be a well-defined and up to date performance and evaluation system able to ensure performance-based promotions, rewards, and punishments.
Keywords: bureaucracy, bureaucratic reforms, public management reforms, administrative institution, bureaucratic structure and functions