The cost of revolving-door bureaucracy
EDITORIAL: The appointment of Pakistan’s seventh federal health secretary in 18 months should not be viewed as another routine bureaucratic reshuffle. It is symptomatic of a much larger problem: the state’s inability to provide its senior officials with the continuity needed to understand problems, formulate policy and see reforms through. If this is how officialdom is expected to function, there…
Pakistan's federal health sector has been plagued by a revolving-door bureaucracy, with health secretaries frequently being appointed, replaced, or removed every 18 months. This rapid turnover undermines the ability of officials to understand problems, formulate policy, and see reforms through, leading to a lack of continuity and institutional memory.
The latest secretary, Dr. Fakhre Alam, has only been in office for three months and can be removed even earlier. This pattern of leadership instability extends beyond the health ministry, affecting the entire bureaucracy. Foreign diplomats have also expressed concern about the issue, noting that frequent turnover makes it difficult to establish long-term relationships with officials.
The revolving-door bureaucracy weakens the government's capacity to engage coherently with its citizens and foreign governments. While the health minister is not directly responsible for appointments in BPS-20 and above, he could have raised the issue of continuity more forcefully. The lack of stability in Pakistan's bureaucracy makes it difficult to build effective institutions, as turnover discourages long-term thinking and impedes the development of expertise, accountability, and meaningful reform.
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