I strongly endorse the comments regarding civil service reforms. No doubt the civil service has a central importance in running the affairs of government. However, it could not perform according to expectations. One reason, of course, is the political influence that was rightly mentioned in the article. However, there is another factor of immense importance, which actually is responsible for poor performance of this service in the country. It is the minimum qualification established to enter into the civil services.It is unfortunate that any person with a bachelors degree can become an officer and reach to the highest level i.e., Secretary of a section or department. Most people who start from section officer to secretary are very unprofessional as they have no education in any special field. How can you expect them to deliver in specified fields such as agriculture, health, police, foreign affairs, education, science and technology? In reply to this observation, a very weak justification was given, that the civil service does not need experts to run a department, and rather they only need the skills to run an office. This thinking is the remnant of the British rule that used to run the locals with such ‘ruling skills’.If we want to make positive transformations in the civil service, we need to make fundamental changes in induction of these officers. There are different sections and departments, as mentioned before and the candidates must go through the competitive examinations, but should have a minimum qualification for each subject of his specific field. For example, only MBBS candidates should compete for the health section, agriculturists for the agriculture section, specialists in education for the education section, LLB for the police, MPhil in science subjects for science and technology, masters in foreign affairs for foreign office and so on.We cannot continue to let our governments be run by ‘Babus’ of a lost era, this is the 21st century and we need progressive changes to keep pace with the world. There needs to be motivation and excitement in these civil servants. They should perform or they would be fired from the job! The incentive based programs work much better in the long run. I sincerely request the authorities to look into these suggestions and amend the rules so that we may get the most relevant persons for each section. We have to take such revolutionary steps if we are serious about making a real change in the country.ZOBIA WASEEM, Karachi, May 31.