Bloated bureaucracy

ONE does not have to be a jaundiced cynic to reach the unfortunate conclusion that two factors — the unchecked daily arrival of 19,000 newborns and a colonial, reform-resistant, bloated bureaucracy — appear all set to seal the fate of Pakistan. The government tackles the first crisis through symbolic optics such as having the military chief on the Population Committee — while leaving the core reforms unaddressed. The crisis of the disinterested and dysfunctional bureaucracy is managed by archaic appeasement tools, such as raising salaries, allowances, perks and bonuses. Ours might be the unique country that diverts the resources meant for its people towards the luxuries of a non-performing parasitic elite. This has created a grotesque divide — a privileged few travel in Fortuners and Gulfstreams, while thousands are condemned to descend and die in poisonous raw sewage-filled gutters.

Amid these existential threats, dismantling our obsolete bureaucracy is not an option. This article is about using a rigorous PDDI (process, digitise, dismantle, improve) cycle that could radically transform and uplift Pakistan. The following text demonstrates how a lean task force of roughly a dozen committed citizens and domain experts can accomplish this transformation.

The first rule of change is to focus on the ‘processes’. For instance, to map and document, in plain language, how every process ‘actually’ works — which is invariably different to how it is officially projected. Consider the example of the Balochistan Zakat Department, where over 100 employees consume Rs1.6 billion to distribute a zakat fund of Rs300 million. This mindless clerical task could be redesigned and performed by just one individual.

Likewise, the Federal Zakat Department employs 13 officials (including one Grade 19, two Grade 18, two Grade 16 and two Grade 15 officers) to simply transfer the yearly zakat fund to the four provinces. This entire department could be easily abolished, with standing instructions given to banks for annual disbursements. Imagine the crushing burden of the Fortuners, perks and lifelong pensions awarded to such officials — a deliberately created burden that will weigh on taxpayers for generations.

Entire departments could be easily abolished.

Pakistan’s much-publicised digital transformation is largely cosmetic and superficial. Expensive seminars and exhibitions showcase AI, while 98pc of the bureaucracy still does not even use email for routine correspondence. Millions of citizens in hundreds of union councils are made to undergo convoluted and tortuous procedures for routine civil registrations. These processes are so painful that half of the deaths and 60pc of births are not registered for years. This could be highly simplified if all hospitals, BHUs and graveyards were to be directly linked to Nadra. Why must citizens be required to repeatedly provide the same photocopies and affidavits to multiple departments — something that can be avoided if all databases are integrated and shared across various state departments such as tax, housing, health, education, banks, pensions, salaries and immigration? A document filed with one department ought to be automatically available to all other authorised departments.

Successive pledges to introduce austerity and reduce the size of government have remained little more than empty rhetoric. A June 2025 announcement by the finance minister promised to trim 43 ministries and nearly 400 affiliated departments by June 30, 2025. The Sindh government’s um­-p­­teenth promise in July 2026 to dism­iss more than 10,000 ‘ghost employees’ was yet another eyewash. Hun­dre­­ds of departments, commissions and authorities have been created sole­­ly as well-paid par­king spaces for fri­ends and relatives. The Nepra chairman’s monthly salary of Rs3.2m provides a minor glimpse of this patronage. Numerous symbolic departments and institutions, such as those responsible for human rights, child protection, right to information, Council of Islamic Ideology, Bait-ul-Mal, zakat and ushr, poverty alleviation, workers’ welfare, Nepra, EOBI and the 25 SOEs that lost Rs832bn in 2025 could be shut down.

Various overlapping ministries, such as communication, railways, maritime affairs and aviation, could be easily merged into a single ministry. The same is true of numerous police forces created under different fancy names.

Pakistan continues to remain blind to two fundamental realities. Its future hinges on bringing its total fertility rate down from 3.6 to 2.0 and reducing government to one-quarter of its current size. The time to embark on these two reforms is now.

The writer is an industrial engineer and a volunteer social activist.

naeemsadiq@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2026

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