LAHORE - Actualisation of the tall promise of good governance made by the political leadership might have been in the minds of believing-in-miracles people, but one finds it really hard to see things moving even at the right pace and in the right direction when the subordinate bureaucracy, except few top bosses of the provincial administration, is found to be demoralised and disinterested in carrying out their duties. Consequently, besides the administrative lapses, the crises like flour, water shortage, price-hike, lawlessness and others continue to remind people of the previous political dispensation. "Whither much-hyped good governance? When the demoralised and disgruntled officers are finding it pretty hard to come up to the expectations of their bosses, who want things being worked out at the earliest possible, while the officers and officials have become habitual of laid back approach to things even moved from the highest level," observed a senior officer, who is working with the present political government, but has developed down-in-the-dumps attitude towards everything. "Everyone is working, but pursuing adhocism because no one is certain what tomorrow will bring for them considering the fluid political situation, and as long as military man in civvies is sitting at the top. Till the political dust settles down and his (Pervez Musharraf's) back is seen, we will remain directionless," he averred. While conceding that this is the state of affairs, an administrative secretary averred that the bureaucracy was playing it as well. "Last eight years have made the bureaucrats lethargic, and they are not in a position to digest the idea that a few things can be done in a day or two. Now after this when they are taken to task, they retaliate because maximum one can do is to repatriate them to the federal government where they get better slots or can come back to the Punjab," he said, quoting Nawaz Ahmed Sukhera, present principal secretary to Governor Punjab, who came back to the province within a few days of his posting despite allegations against him. "What can you do under these circumstances when the officers are not willing whole-heartedly to carry out their duties," he said. To a question about the demoralisation of the officers, he put the onus on Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Chief Secretary Punjab Javed Mehmood. "It is all because of their own doings. Most of the officers hate someone targeting their self-respect openly, either during meetings or in public during 'surprise visits', which is being done by the both; the CS is even hitting harder than his boss, who has perhaps realised that it is not 1997," he said, pointing out that a junior CS had not sat well with the bureaucracy. "They have tried to settled the junior-senior dust and quieten the clamour by repatriating all seniors to the Federal government except three or four, who have already been known for having no qualms about serving under a junior; hence they do not matter anymore. Now, if someone has the guts to correct the bosses, they are shown the Punjab exit door opening in the Capital," he said quoting a Grade-22 officer. "Punjab is being run by school boys after the exodus of the senior officers to Islamabad." During the current week, according to a source, Chief Economist Planning and Development Board Dr Shujaat Ali and Javed Mehmood exchanged hot words at a meeting where the latter quizzed the former about his working. Dr Ali was repatriated to Islamabad on Thursday. Other seniors to go with him were Secretary Forest, Wildlife and Fisheries Department Capt (R) Naveed Akram Cheema, and Director General of the same department Muhammad Asif. Earlier, when the flour crisis was at its peak, the then Secretary Food Department Seerat Asghar was repatriated when he requested to be treated honourably. "On one hand, you are saying that there is a dearth of good officers, but on the other, you are sending them back just because of the reason that they had not digested humiliation or a PSO had complained against a secretary that he had given a particular news to the media. Sometimes, we feel as if working in a vacuum where we don't find some seniors even at the lower cadre," said another senior officer pointing out that with one stroke of pen, the government terminated all re-employed after superannuation sans considering any futuristic approach towards filling those specialised slots. "It reminded us of the Tartarians era when they used to erect minarets of human skulls announcing 'we are here'. They have opened too many fronts while they have least number of committed officers to fight. Administration is being run through coercion, not through leadership, which has given rise to resentment, and the subordinate bureaucracy is demoralised," he averred considering transfers-postings, suspensions, and reprimands as whipping sticks. "Now every officer sees the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, while reward seemed to be placed in the distant future. After terminating over 3500 in one go, the government could have promoted at least equal number of officers to the next scales against vacant slots, which could have given them an impetus to work for the new administration, but it has not been the case as the only Provincial Selection Board-I meeting ended abruptly with a loud rebuke to the administrative secretaries by Javed Mehmood," he said. In the mid of May, the provincial administration also sought yet another list from the administrative secretaries, heads of departments and the District Coordination Officers about the officers having a general reputation of doubtful integrity. But no one has been punished, except the fact that this was used as a pretext for transferring a few, and making the rest as Officers on Special Duty.   At one point of time, the provincial administration seemed running full throttle to develop its own team at every level - mainly from administrative secretaries to the District Coordination Officers and District Police Officers - in turn heads of various departments and sections were also endeavouring to pick 'right' kind of people, while rejecting the incumbents tracing their links to the previous political and administrative dispensations. While quite a few senior officers considered the 'chosen' ones as the deliverers and willing workers, while the rest were tagging their subordinates as sluggish and incompetent consequent upon the laid-back approach of the previous administration, and continuous comforting spanning over the last eight years. "Majority of the officers and officials are needed to be woken up from deep slumber, while the rest, who are willing workers, is a rarity. Hence it is better that one chooses officers from the best available lot, while rejecting the workers shirkers," said a senior officer, while acknowledging the fact that persistent efforts at 'developing teams' had only resulted hampering of work. "During the previous months, everyone was expecting to be transferred sooner or later, and kept on waiting for the orders. Resultantly, work was hampered," he concluded maintaining that like the Chief Executive of the province, they believed that they could only work with the people of their own choice. On June 10, after about two months of reshuffles on a large scale in all tiers of bureaucracy, the Punjab government put complete ban on transfers and postings in all the provincial departments, while allowing the latter to fill only the vacant posts; thereby bringing the bureaucratic tsunami to a sudden halt. However, this is still continuing after the chain is developed resulting from filling the vacant posts. The rest of the promises and plans - from bringing all independently functioning departments under concerned departments to terminating illegally appointed contractual employees - are yet to be actualised, while the people are looking up to them to materialise what actually is 'good governance'.