ISLAMABAD - The National Reconstruction Bureau has been dysfunctional since the PPP-led coalition government assumed power in the country but it became history about a month back when it was formally replaced with a Policy Analysis Unit. Established in November 1999 by the then military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf soon after overthrowing the politically elected government, the NRB was tasked to further the seven-point agenda of the General to empower the masses at grass-roots level through restructured Local Government System for which the bureau had given recommendations. NRB had also given proposal to reform the police department and Police Order 2001 was introduced in the light of the recommendations of the department but later even under the patronage of Musharraf it was turned dormant owing to the pressure from his political cronies who did not want to share the power at grass-roots level with District and Tehsil Nazims, who were practically become more powerful than MNAs and MPAs under the new system of governance at grass-roots level. Since the incumbent government took charge the NRB became virtually dysfunctional and all the consultants working with the department on various projects were relinquished of their duties while the staff brought in the bureau from other ministries and divisions were sent back to their parent departments but even then a good number of employees still left with the department who came in under the direct recruitment process. Dr. Asim was the last Chairman of the NRB who had also resigned from the slot in November 2009 after the LGs devolution. Sources in the government informed The Nation that the department remained intact for past over two years without doing any thing only because of the inefficiency and slackness on the part of the government. In the budget for fiscal 2009-10 the allocation for the department was Rs. 110 million while in year 2010-11 the allocations for NRB were enhanced to Rs. 119 but the output of the department during the past two years was nil and the money allocated to the department was just used for paying the salaries and maintenance of general paraphernalia of the department. Finally now after a series of meetings the department was reduced to a small unit under the new nomenclature of Policy and Analysis Unit ostensibly to adjust some of the blue-eyed officers of the department. The sources informed that not even a single employee of the department would be rendered jobless and all the laid off employees of the department would be taken in the Federal Pool and would be accommodated in other federal government departments. The sources in NRB confirmed to The Nation that since coming into power of the PPP-lead coalition government NRB had virtually become deadwood and the employees were just given salaries for doing nothing. It was the glaring example of governments apathy toward the wastage of taxpayers money, a former employee of the department said. Some of the experts who remained associated with the department in the past were of the view that the department should not be disbanded and should be transformed into a think-tank to work on the projects of national importance and would guide and assist the future governments in formulation of national policies. While the political leadership across the board was of the view that the department was established to introduce system of governance at grass-root level to marginalize the popular leadership and to introduce a handpicked breed of elected stakeholders to further the cause of a dictator in the country. It was due to this mindset of incumbent political lot that the political set-up erected at grass-root level under the NRB was abolished and the other things done under the direction of NRB like Police Order and other proposals were also scraped.