Assignment no. 01.

Name: Minahil Ismail.

Reg. No. 21-NTU-CS-1339
Discipline: BS Software Engineering ( 2nd Semester)
Section: B
Subject Title: Pak Studies
Subject Code: HU-1092
Submitted to: Mam Huma Tahir
 Functions of Bureaucracy

1. Implementation of Governmental Policies and Laws:

It is the responsibility of the bureaucracy to carry out and implement the policies of the
government. Good policies and laws can really serve their objectives only when these are
efficiently implemented by the civil servants.

2. Functioning in Policy-Formulation:
Policy-making is the function of the political executive. However, the Bureaucracy plays an
active role in this exercise. Civil Servants supply the data needed by the political executive for
formulating the policies. In fact, Civil servants formulate several alternative policies and describe
the merits and demerits of each. The Political Executive then selects and adopts one such policy
alternative as the governmental policy.

3. Running of Administration:
To run the day-to-day administration in accordance with the policies, laws, rules, regulations
and decisions of the government is also the key responsibility of the Bureaucracy. The political
executive simply exercises guiding, controlling and supervising functions.

4. Advisory Function:
One of the important functions of the Bureaucracy is to advise the political executive. The
ministers receive all the information and advice regarding the functioning of their respective
departments from the civil servants. As amateurs, the ministers have little knowledge about the
functions of their departments. They, therefore, depend upon the advice of bureaucracy. As
qualified, experienced and expert civil servants working in all government departments, they
provide expert and professional advice and information to the ministers.

5. Political stability
One of the functions to provide a focus of stability and continuity within political systems,
mostly seen in developing countries.
This stability depends very largely on the status of bureaucrats as permanent and professional
public servants, while ministers and governments come and go. However, continuity has also its
own disadvantages without effective scrutiny. It can lead to corruption, a major issue of
developing states, compounded by widespread poverty and disadvantage

6. Functioning in Legislative Work:

The civil servants play an important but indirect role in law making. They draft the bills, which
the ministers submit to the legislature for law making. The ministers provide all the information
asked for by the legislature by taking the help of the civil servants.

7. Semi-judicial Work:
The emergence of the system of administrative justice, under which several types of the cases
and disputes are decided by the executive, has further been a source of increased semi-judicial
work of the bureaucracy. The disputes involving the grant of permits, licenses, tax concessions,
quotas etc. are now settled by the civil servants.

8. Collection of Taxes and Disbursement of Financial Benefits:

The civil servants play a vitally important role in financial administration. They advise the
political executive in respect of all financial planning, tax-structure, tax-administration and the
like. They collect taxes and settle disputes involving recovery of taxes. They play a vital role in
preparing the budget and taxation proposals. They carry out the function of granting of legally
sanctioned financial benefits, tax reliefs, subsidies and other concessions to the people.

9. Record-Keeping:
The Civil Service has the sole responsibility of keeping systematically all government records.
They collect, classify and analyze all data pertaining to all activities of the government. They
collect and maintain vital socioeconomic statistics, which are used for the formulation of
Public policies and plans.

10. Public Relations:

The era of modern welfare state and democratic politics has made it essential for the government
to keep close relations with the people of the state. The need for maintaining active and full
public relations is a vital necessity of every state. The civil servants play an active role in this
sphere.
They are the main agents who establish direct contacts with the people. They serve as a two-
way link. On the one hand, they communicate all government decisions to the people, and on the
other hand, they communicate to the government the needs, interests and views of the people.
Thus, Bureaucracy plays a vigorously active and highly important role in the working of the
government.

11. Articulating interests:

Bureaucrats are brought into contact with interest groups through task of policy implementation,
and involvement in policy formulation and advice. Groups such as doctors, teachers, farmers and
business corporations becomes ‘client groups’, serviced by their respective agencies. (known as
Clientelism)
However, this clientelism may also interfere with the public responsibilities and duties of
civil servants.
 Structure of Pakistani Bureaucracy

It is widely acknowledged that Pakistan inherited a competent and well-organized bureaucracy

at Independence in 1947. Key features of the post-colonial bureaucracy were strong capacity for
policy formulation and execution and a significant measure of independence from the political
realm. There is consensus that the capacity and influence of the bureaucracy has diminished
over the past four decades, leading to growing incoherence between policy formulation and
implementation and poor governance.
In part, this is attributable to weak and incoherent policy formulation
under successive military and civilian governments combined with deliberate efforts to
undermine the power and legitimacy of the bureaucracy. This process accelerated in the
Bhutto period with the removal of constitutional safeguards in relation to remuneration and
conditions of service under the administrative reforms introduced in 1973. The reorganization
of the bureaucracy and the abolition of the elite Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) further reduced
the eminence and insulation of the higher levels. Lateral entry and movement between the
different cadres further eroded the well-knit hierarchy of the CSP, and was used by Zia-ul-Haq
as a means of institutionalizing the entry of the armed forces into the civil service. These
provisions enhanced political control over the bureaucracy and curtailed its autonomy, especially
at higher levels.
Nature and function of bureaucracy depends majorly on level of socioeconomic
development and political system of the society. Traditionally the bureaucracy was expected to
ensure continuity of policies, political order, uphold rule of law and promote economic
development. However, these expectations change with changing local scenario. Under many
countries with colonial histories, they are likely to have imitative bureaucratic structures with
huge resemblance with their parent administrations.
In case of Pakistan, the British system of government was more
authoritarian, elitist and aloof, with huge gaps between the ruler and the ruled. Result is the rise
of bureaucracy, which has existed as social elite despite continual manipulation. They have far
greater staying power then we are willing to concede and they manage to keep it for decades
despite scandals and proven incompetence.
Throughout history, we have seen that former bureaucrats like Ghulam
Mohammad and Iskandar Mirza brutally intervened in political and constitutional
infrastructure. This was because the new state inherited a strong bureaucratic elite and weak
political base with severe lack of quality and competent leadership. As time passed, the repeated
martial laws and uncertain political setup influenced the composition of bureaucracy. The
political parties that led the political arena of Pakistan did not understand that bureaucratic
procedures play a key role in shaping public perception of the government’s performance and
therefore they continued to use it for their own advantages. This led to rise of a clientelist type of
political system, which resulted in the bureaucratic elite to enjoy power and prestige despite the
fact that it has undergone institutional turn down and crises of moral authority.
Institutional reforms, political interference and changing incentive structures
have had adverse consequences for the developmental performance of the bureaucracy and its
capacity to deliver services and public goods effectively. There is also a growing disjuncture
between policy formulation and execution. These developments have major implications for a
forward-looking agenda premised on growth and poverty reduction, and undermine the capacity
of the bureaucracy to act as a potential driver of change.