LAHORE – Former Inspector General Police (IGP) Tariq Khosa on Tuesday resigned from the Task Force on Austerity and Restructuring of the Government (TFARG).
The move is being seen as a protest against the federal government’s move to exclude the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) from the civil services examination.
The high-powered TFARG was constituted by Prime Minister Imran Khan in September 2018 and Mr Khosa was appointed as one of the 18 members of the task force.
The TFARG has been tasked giving recommendations to the government as to how its expenses could be curtailed and what steps are required for the restructuring of the government departments.
Mr Khosa, who is a very well respected bureaucrat, is also the elder brother of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.
Tariq Khosa issued the following statement on this move:
“In my view, excluding police from the common civil service exam is a dangerous move toward bureaucratic elite capture. I have great respect for Dr Ishrat Hussain and I like Arbab Shehzad.
However, in meetings of Task Force on Civil Service Reforms and Government Restructuring, I begged to differ of creating a separate service stream of police. Policing, unlike the military, is not a force. It is a management and service delivery instrument.
Unlike in India where IAS and IPS are inducted through one central examination, we are venturing into an area which will impact the federation.
Police are likely to be marginalised to initially a provincial service and eventually a local government institution as in the US. Police should remain part of the general administration group.
PAS should accept us as part of a policy delivery mechanism. We should be inducted through one common examination as done now.
However, professional mainstreaming and separate career planning can be done with a pyramid of service where the best of the lot from each service group can rise to one main policy implementation top bureaucratic cadre ie in BS-21 and 22.
This process of administrative reengineering must be resisted. The PM should be apprised of a move toward bureaucratic elitism rather than administrative specialisation. I had to resign from Task Force on ARG on account of principles”.
