Speaking his heart out in his address to the members of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP), Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Asif Haider Shah on Friday said that people no longer trust bureaucrats because they have stopped thinking about the people. is given
“As civil servants, the biggest challenge we face is lack of trust,” Shah said, when he delivered his address on ‘Challenges in Governing Sindh’. The event was organized by ESUP at a local hotel.
“When we try to initiate, the first hurdle we face is that people don’t trust what we say, and we have to prove that we mean what we preach,” the chief secretary told the young officers. advising them to “work the extra ‘miles, work the extra hours, and make your existence relevant and valuable.”
He instructed them to focus on four important qualities: honesty, integrity of purpose, hard work and courage, stressing that with these qualities they would gain the trust of the people. “We civil servants have stopped thinking about people. I ask my officers to make interventions that are people-centric,” he maintained.
Shah said that good officers who are upright do not take illegal orders. “We prefer to leave rather than comply with such orders. We must realize one thing: the final decision-making rests with the political government. The mistakes we make as civil servants, sometimes politicians. Believing that everything they do is wrong and everything we do is right. What is right for us must be right for them and what is wrong for us must be wrong for them Should be,” he went on.
He also rejected the impression of pressure on bureaucrats to follow orders, asking them to do their work the way they want, but always try to find solutions. “We also need to discipline ourselves,” he added.
The top bureaucrat of the province highlighted that the job of civil servants is not to govern but to carry forward and implement the decisions of the political government. “The difference is that I always tell political governments that it’s their vision to decide where they want to go, and the role of the bureaucracy is to show them how to get there,” he said. However, he added that servants have an important role to play.
Shah said he learned that the theme of ‘ignorance is bliss’ holds some truth because as chief secretary, he sometimes feels that knowing too much can become a problem for himself. He said that the mother of all problems is the growing population, which is putting pressure on almost every sector, infrastructure, education, health and sanitation. He added that during his tenure as federal climate change secretary, he said he had been telling the government that population was a climate change issue.
About the problems facing the city, the chief secretary said that uncontrolled urbanization has put pressure on resources. For example, he said, the waterboard system was designed for 8.5 million people but is now expected to feed 20 million people. In addition, the numerous civic agencies operating in the city “spoil a lot of the soup.”
An entire city cannot be repaired overnight. We have identified major arteries in each district of Karachi to tackle first, as this will give people some confidence. Once we have enough resources, we will scale up the effort.
He said that they are also working on the grievance redressal mechanism. Aziz Memon, Patron General ESUP and President International Council of ESU, praised Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah for selecting the ‘best possible officer’ Shah as CS. He said the English Speaking Union (ESU) was founded in 1918, and has been around for over 100 years.
He highlighted that the charity is involved in various activities, including competitions, debates and scholarships. Our competition rounds are held in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad cities across Pakistan. “We encourage the youth to get involved, using the English language to promote peace and harmony,” he added.