Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
Mr. Ahmad Bukhsh Lehri DMG, 7th Common Chief Secretary, Balochistan
While during the service he served on key positions in the provincial government of Balochistan. He was ‘Deputy Secretary’ to the CM of Balochistan, ‘Deputy Secretary’ of Services & General Administration. In field postings he served as Deputy Commissioner and Commission of Kalat Division, commissioner Zohb Division and Adl. Commissioner Afghan refugees, Quetta.
Moreover, he also performed his duties as Secretary of Forest Department of Balochistan, Secretary Education and he remained Additional chief Secretary (Dev), Balochistan twice. He also served as ‘DG Hajj’ at Jedah, DG of Gawadr development Authority (GDA) and as Federal Secretary of Ministry of Housing & Works. Presently he is serving as ‘Chief Secretary’ of Balochistan.
He has attended many training courses in USA, Manila and national institutes.
Jahangir’s World Times: Please tell us about yourself, education and achievements
Chief Secretary: I belong to Kalat division , 90 miles away from Quetta ; got my initial education from Kalat, then came to Quetta for further education, I have done masters in English Literature and LLB. In 1979 I did CSS and got allocation in District Management Group (DMG).
JWT: As you know Pakistan is facing severe crisis of governance which is worse in Balochistan so, what are the causes of this crisis in your opinion?
CS: Well, the worst part in Baluchistan is little bid disputable it is as good or bad as other parts of the country. In fact, we have to see these causes in the historical perspective, in case of Baluchistan the problem is that we are quite behind from other parts of country in education. The first ever university in Baluchistan was established in 1970 while other parts of country had Universities even in the 19th century for instance Punjab University was established in 1884. Similarly, the first board of intermediate and secondary education was established in 1970 earlier we were affiliated with the Multan board so, if someone has any concern or grievances to the board then he or she had to go to Multan.
Actually, at the time of independence Baluchistan was divided into two parts one was Balochistan States Union (BSU) and other area was known as Balochistan Administration (BA) or British Balochistan. The area of BA was mainly governed by the Britishers in fact; this area was given by Khan of Kalat to the Britishers on lease of hundred years. That is why; there was a disparity between the education systems of these two areas. BSU had Persian as medium of education as well as the official language. On the other hand in the British Balochistan or BA English language was the medium of education in schools as well as the official language. So, those parts of Balochistan were comparatively better than the BSU. For instance, Bella was little bit more urbanized, some black top roads, railway linkages and some good institutes were there.
So, having said that the peoples of Balochistan had to work hard when they were merged into One Unit system i.e. known as West Pakistan in 1958. Actually, at that time the official language as well as the medium of education was English in the whole West Pakistan. Now what happened, all those who were educated in Persian they suddenly become illiterate so; it was the point which affected the service structure in Balochistan but even than we had some laws of BSU which were still at work and implemented for instance ‘Dewani-E-Kalat’ i.e. civil procedure for the almost 80% of Balochistan even after the lapse of 70 years. Thus one can say that management skills were there but language was the barrier which contributed in this crisis from the beginning.
Furthermore, the economy of Balochistan was not land based it was basically pedestrian economy, people were nomads and they used to move from one area to another area in search of grazing yards for their livestock so, in such a social structure people were unable to get their kids enrolled in schools. However, in 1970 after the break up of One-Unit System Balochistan became a province of the country then the peoples of Balochistan got some job opportunities. Therefore, they started settling down in the urban areas, this urbanization had started a number of commercial activities but industrial base was still very slow. There were very few industries established in Lasbela district and some units in Quetta in 1970.
In fact, this low industrial base brought a tendency of people i.e. to move outside Balochistan in search of livelihoods that is why; the population of Balochistan remained on decreasing. It is surprising for instance, in 1970 Balochistan was 6.26 % of the total population of Pakistan and in 1998 it was 6.11% of the total population.
Moreover, another problem of Balochistan was ‘Brain Drain’ our people who have some educattion, had some experience and skills they moved towards Karachi, other parts of Sindh and in Punjab too but in very rare cases. So, I would say this brain drain contributed a lot towards a very poor educational base. In addition, it was a problem for us to manage our units of administration because we are second after Punjab; as far as numbers of administrative units are concerned.
Therefore, federal government shares with Balochistan in terms of district management and police positions for these administrative units; the share of federal government is 40 to 50%. While, the intake from Balochistan in the federal services is only 6% earlier it was 3.5% in other words 6% people are recruited from Balochistan and 50% people are sent to Balochistan. Actually, these officers are not willing to work here, they just use to countdown the days and try to find out chances to go back to their provinces. Whereas earlier the tenure of these officers was 3 years but now it is one and half year thus in such a short tenure administrative issues cannot be resolved.
In addition, I would say we have several problems for instance, we have not proper road networks as a result what happens, when we open schools and basic health units (BHU) in the remote areas, those are not attended properly by the people posted there because of the poor means of communications and lack of big salary.
Moreover, there are mines of Marble at more than 100 places in Balochistan but we do not have Marble processing plants; and there is no electricity, gas and tape water in those areas. Till last year our share was only 5% in the national divisible pool and we have 43% of the total area of Pakistan. It would be surprising for your readers but it is true that if we want to construct a road and we can not complete it even by spending our entire PSDP.
For example, if you travel in Kalat division which is 19% of the total area of Pakistan, the remotest sub-division of Kalat takes at least two days drive on a good quality vehicle. Similarly, if you construct a road to connect Mashkeyl with Khuzdar then it costs more than five times from our entire PSDP. Furthermore, we have three million hectors of land which can be cultivated but we are unable to utilize our share of Indus-water system because we do not have carrier canals.
Moreover, another problem of Balochistan was ‘Brain Drain’ our people who have some educattion, had some experience and skills they moved towards Karachi, other parts of Sindh and in Punjab too but in very rare cases. So, I would say this brain drain contributed a lot towards a very poor educational base. In addition, it was a problem for us to manage our units of administration because we are second after Punjab; as far as numbers of administrative units are concerned.
Therefore, federal government shares with Balochistan in terms of district management and police positions for these administrative units; the share of federal government is 40 to 50%. While, the intake from Balochistan in the federal services is only 6% earlier it was 3.5% in other words 6% people are recruited from Balochistan and 50% people are sent to Balochistan. Actually, these officers are not willing to work here, they just use to countdown the days and try to find out chances to go back to their provinces. Whereas earlier the tenure of these officers was 3 years but now it is one and half year thus in such a short tenure administrative issues cannot be resolved.
Moreover, there are mines of Marble at more than 100 places in Balochistan but we do not have Marble processing plants; and there is no electricity, gas and tape water in those areas. Till last year our share was only 5% in the national divisible pool and we have 43% of the total area of Pakistan. It would be surprising for your readers but it is true that if we want to construct a road and we can not complete it even by spending our entire PSDP.
For example, if you travel in Kalat division which is 19% of the total area of Pakistan, the remotest sub-division of Kalat takes at least two days drive on a good quality vehicle. Similarly, if you construct a road to connect Mashkeyl with Khuzdar then it costs more than five times from our entire PSDP. Furthermore, we have three million hectors of land which can be cultivated but we are unable to utilize our share of Indus-water system because we do not have carrier canals.
ernment of Balochistan is doing its level best to carry out these projects and other development work but one must understand that the problem is huge. Hence, we cannot develop 43% area with a share of 5%.
JWT: Now after a decade ‘Commissioner System’ has again reinstalled in Balochistan, what do you think will this system bring any pleasant change in the ‘Civic Life’ of Balochistan?
CS: Actually, the DCO-system and Police Order-2000 was not installed to improve the administrative system or governance. In fact, it was political decision of a single and non-elected person without any consultation from the concerned institutions and people. So, there were lot of disconnects in that system. For instance, Tehsil and Town administration was not responsible to the District government; on the other hand DCO was use to coordinate with all the departments except Police. Law & order was a provincial subject but Police officers come from the central government. Similarly, executive district officer (EDO) for revenue was responsible to the District government but at the same time he was custodian of the land which belongs to the Provincial government. Thus, due to sheer administrative compulsions we restored the previous ‘Commissioner system’ and we will bring out the changes according to the prevailing conditions. Indeed, I would say that the revival of divisional magistrate (DM) and sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) was necessary in Balochistan.
JWT: What steps are taken by the government of Balochistan has taken to make the Gawadr Port functional?
CS: Gawadr Port is already functional so far three ships are anchored there actually, we are trying to build up Gawadr as a satellite city of Balochistan.The Chief Minister has issued the notification declaring Gawadr as ‘Winter Capital’ of Balochistan from October to March. Initially, we are going to open up important government offices in Gawadr I personally went to Gawadr to see the arrangements; I also got briefing from the officials of Civil Aviation. In fact, they are going to start work of Gawadr international airport and funds are also released for the construction. Moreover, we also reopened the five star hotel in Gawadr and the people of Gawadr have warmly welcomed this decision. Hence, the status of ‘Winter Capital’ will inculcate economic activities which will change the socio-economic outlook of Gawadr.
Any Message
The only thing which I always have been pleading in the academy and other institutes i.e. we should bridge the gap between the bureaucrats and the people. For instance it is mandatory to wear a ‘Suit’ in National Management College. So, when you wear a ‘Suit’, speak ‘English’ and eat with ‘Fork & Knife’ then how you can bridge the gap between the ‘Public Servant’ and ‘Public’ because a bureaucrat is always a public servant. I am not saying these are bad manners but it creates the gap.
