Let Meritocracy replace Democracy in Pakistan

Chitral : The recent appointment of Chief of Air staff of Pakistan Airforce is a perfect example of Meritocracy being practiced in the the armed forces of Pakistan.? The official citation of appointment of the Air Chief says :

“He is the recipient of the coveted Sword of Honour, Best Pilot Trophy and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gold Medal from PAF Academy Asghar Khan.

During his tenure of service, he has held various Command and Staff appointments including Command of a Fighter Squadron, a Tactical Attack Wing, Base Commander of two elite F-16 Bases and Air Officer Commanding of Regional Air Command.

Air Marshal Khan is also a qualified Flying Instructor and graduate of Combat Commanders? School, Command and Staff College, Jordan, Air War College, Faisal and National Defence University, Islamabad.

He has also served as Personal Staff Officer to Chief of the Air Staff, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operations), Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Operations) and Director General C4I at Air Headquarters, Islamabad.

Presently, he is holding two appointments as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Support) and Director General Air Force Strategic Command at Air Headquarters, Islamabad. The Air Officer has flown various training and fighter aircraft including F-16, F-6, FT-5, T-37 and MFI-17.

In recognition of his meritorious services, he has been awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (Military)”.

If the Chief of the Airforce is chosen taking into consideration his strong credentials, the service will obviously flourish and Meritocracy will trickle down the ladder.

In stark contrast, imagine the ministers/advisors appointed by a prime minister. His considerations invariably always are; whether the person is loyal to him, whether the person has undergone imprisonment or was victimised by previous government etc etc. Every criteria except merit is taken into consideration. The result is; we have incompetent public representatives and thus the bureaucrats who are appointed on merit through competitive exams actually rule from behind the scenes.

If in Pakistan, all government positions from the President down to the village Councillor are selected through competitive exams instead of elections, the country would take off into progress and stability within no time. .. CN report, 17 Mar 2018

One thought on “Let Meritocracy replace Democracy in Pakistan

  1. True.
    Only 1 correction. There is no exam for becoming Air Chief, deputy or Commander. It is based on performance of previous post.
    Pakistani people are having problem understanding that
    a) people performing good (or just ok) in their personal businesses and trades (by luck or ill-practice) are not necessarily the best in the country, there are much better ones.
    b) Its important to other better people give other life achievers chance to lead on merit basis and not just believe that current ones (even if their favourite) did the best that is possible
    c) Heir-ship helps in learning the trade but their are many gifted and deserving individuals in our nation who can do better even if there has been no one in their family in politics.
    d) The elected person should not be given free hand to do whatever he wants and should be dragged down the next day, if necessary, no lame excuses and fairy-tales acceptable.
    People need to be educated about facts. There needs to be a strong interest free news medium present in the nation to do this.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *