“Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time”. Voltaire
Umair Mehboob
Although this quote of the French philosopher Voltaire can aptly be applied and usually does apply to every phenomenon around us, but more so, and that too with a sluggish pace, in the matters of institutional reformation and broadly, statecraft. However, there are some glaring examples of able navigators for whom this aphorism appears to work swiftly. One of them is Maj. Gen. Irfan Ahmed Malik HI (M), who in his two years tenure (since he became the HOD of ML&C Deptt) has done wonders of the sort, which, to a bare reader, would be a fantasy tale. Yet here we are, having witnessed the stupendous transformation of ML&C Deptt — from one barely able to keep rolling to the one navigating now the colossal number of affairs to perfection. When Maj. Gen. Irfan Malik took over the command in Sep, 2023, ML&C ship was already sinking — with over 8000 litigations attributing singularly to Uniform Taxation policy and the Cantonment Boards — which come under the umbrella of ML&C Deptt — were on the verge of bankruptcy due to adverse Court decisions barring the collection of Tax (the main source on the basis of which service delivery is ensured to over 5 (M) residents in 44 Cantonments all over Pakistan). The situation was unpropitious and the morale of officers down. Yet with sheer brilliance and pragmatic approach, Gen. Irfan turned the tides in a span of 08 months. The long overdue Constitutional Amendment was made — restoring the ML&C Deptt’s ability to collect tax and ensure stability in services.
Concurrently, Gen Irfan realized that the trust of public can only be restored by transparency — (faltering otherwise) and in the 21st Century, transparency is a function of automation. With this peculiar notion in mind, he proceeded to reduce human interaction to facilitate general public (at the cost of antagonism of many officials whose vested interests were directly hit by this intervention). The ML&C Management Information System (MIS), the first of its kind, was developed and implemented. It led to the integration of all core works of the Deptt. The system streamlined finance (Taxation, Billing, Audit, Procurement), HR (Recruitments, Payroll), Services (Application / Complaints) and legal dimensions. Likewise, ML&C IT Policy, 25 was dished out to protect IT assets and data. He also realized that only a loyal and mentally devoted workforce (a factor of ownership by the leader) can lead to the reformation he had in mind — after all, it is the infantry which will translate any vision (howsoever noble) into reality. The process started and that too on an ultrasonic pace (but without compromising the transparency and due process). The record of 30000+ employees was digitized. The paperless domain was introduced covering aspects like real time posting / transfers along with mobile notifications. This specific process — which otherwise, would have taken ages — took a mere calendar year. The discipline dimension was also not overlooked: with the introduction of AI based attendance app having features of Geo fencing, timestamp and liveliness.
To eliminate the menace of ghost employees, the payroll was linked with attendance. On the pragmatic side, process of HR Rationalization (mammoth in scope but do able in the eyes of Gen. Irfan) was undertaken. A quintessential study was conducted by the brilliant minds of ML&C Deptt to resolve issue of overstaffing, ghost employees and irregular appointments. A novel concept of “Basic Functional Unit” was introduced and new scale registers were formulated accordingly. It led to the identification of around 2500 surplus staff with a financial impact of 1 (B) / per annum.
The list is long: it might seem a eulogy but in fact is a statistical compendium of the things done in Gen. Irfan’s tenure. The Cantonments Servant Regularization Policy was introduced in 2024 (with the noble intention of regularizing those employees who truly deserved regularization and were otherwise serving on contract / adhoc or daily wage basis for years, and in some cases decades). One area that was neglected by successive regimes was promotions — again it might seem exaggeration but pending promotions of 2776 employees (since 2019) were made including time scale and regular ones thus boosting the morale of a huge workforce and restoring their confidence in leadership. The loopholes in erstwhile recruitment and promotion policy were plugged. Gen. Irfan will take personal pains in ensuring that he chaired every interview of direct recruitment with a single notion in mind — meritocracy. Moreover, the welfare of employees — again a pivotal thing in organizational culture and workforce productivity — was not downplayed. Gen. Irfan ensured that long pending cases of pension and commutation were paid, PM’s assistance package was implemented but side by side, accountability was also ensured with over 100 inquiries initiated and miscreants shown the door. The rare combination of overwhelming administration coupled with compassion precipitously resulted in two outcomes — performance and loyalty of workforce (the second thing being Aristotle’s favourite virtue in his Virtue Ethics). Well researched policies were promulgated like CB Polio Eradication Support Policy, ML&C Rent Controller Policy, Code of Conduct for drivers, Health and Education Policy, to name a few. A nationwide internship programme was launched covering areas like Legal, Health, Engineering & Horticulture.
To sum up, Gen. Irfan single handedly steered ML&C Deptt out of crises. His profound, pragmatic vision he ensured was translated into reality. His interventions would have stupendous repercussions. His legacy will live for times to come.
The writer is a Civil Servant presently serving as CEO Murree Cantonment. He can be approached at [email protected]
