KARACHI, Jan 25 (APP): Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar on Thursday said that a diligent public servant works day and night selflessly to serve the people by taking pains in formulating innovative public policies and interventions, and making sure that the policies and interventions were implemented effectively so that the public at large felt served.
He said, “If the public does not own the public servants, it should be taken as a sign of dissatisfaction. Against all the odds and challenges of this profession, he urged the officers to work with conviction and personal commitment.”
He said this while speaking at the Graduation Ceremony of BS-19 officers who completed their 16-week-long Senior Management Course (34th SMC) at the National Institute of Management (NIM), Karachi. Those who attended the program include the Director General, NIM Dr. Lubna Ayub, Chief Instructor, Senior Management Course (SMC) Khaliiq Shaikh and others.
The chief minister said this course, though being a mandatory requirement for promotion to BS-20 positions, must have brushed up the officers underwent existing repertoire tools and skills, and helped them gain critical new insights on numerable issues and challenges through various training activities including lecture and panel discussions by distinguished speakers/scholars/economists.
He said that since the performance in the NIM course carried significant weight for officers’ career advancement, therefore he hoped that the course participants must have invested their time, energy, and passionate efforts to gain knowledge, skills and necessary tools, for their personal and professional transformations as required for holding senior echelons of policy and decision making tiers of the government(s) at both the Federal and Provincial levels.
He said he was confident that the National School of Public Policy (NSPP) Syllabus containing themes on public policy, public financial management, leadership and communication skills, strategic planning and crisis management, decision making, and research and analysis, must have enabled the newly trained officers to take better cognizance of myriad challenges faced by our country, especially the critical twin challenge of the “good governance” and ‘’public service delivery’’ during your numerable academic and practical assignments.
The CM said NIM Karachi being a constituent unit of the National Institute of Public Policy (NSPP), Lahore, is a highly prestigious training Institute of the country due to continuing academic and professional development rigour, unique training activities and traditions, professional commitment and dedication towards the professional development of trainee officers.
He added that the NIM Karachi provided myriad and varied opportunities to the course participants for professional interaction with policymakers and politicians, senior executives, scholars, and community leaders to enhance their 340-degree understanding of public policy challenges and help them think from different perspectives of various stakeholders.
He said that Government Departments, particularly training institutes, suffer from a relative disadvantage of scarcity of necessary resources, both in terms of human and financial. In this context, I would like to sincerely congratulate Dr. Lubna Ayub, the Director General and her Senior Management course and other support teams, for organizing the four-month-long course successfully with passion and professional commitment.
The CM said that the professional and ethical burdens on the civil services of the Federation and the Provinces have therefore increased tremendously these days as our country was passing through the most challenging times of its history.
“In this context, both the NSPP and its constituent unit, NIM, have courageously undertaken the critical task of capacity-
building responsibly of our civil servants, so that you may discharge your professional duties ethically and professionally,” he concluded.
Earlier, DG NIM Dr Luna urged to remove the `red lamps’ from the corridors of their offices.
“These red lamps hanging in the corridor of the offices remind us of the colonial era and were introduced by the Britishers,” she said and added that the officers must interact with the complaints personally instead of leaving them at the mercy of their clerical staff.