Civil Service Restructuring Brings Engineering Back Into the Spotlight -

By Manzoor Shaikh

Pakistan’s federal government has finalized a sweeping plan to restructure the country’s civil service, proposing a shift away from the traditional generalist model towards a system built around professional expertise, specialized recruitment and performance-based career progression.

Among the proposed 11 professional cadres is Engineering—a development that could have particular significance for Pakistan’s engineering community, which has for years been demanding a formal place for engineers within the country’s federal civil-service structure.

The reform package, unveiled at a consultative session chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, proposes major changes to recruitment, training, promotions, performance evaluation and the organizational structure of the federal bureaucracy. The proposed reforms are estimated to cost around Rs11 billion to implement. The government’s move comes after two committees constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif worked on civil-service reforms. According to the reform package, the committees held 18 meetings since September 2024 and reached consensus on 43 of their 46 recommendations.

Engineering Finally Enters the Proposed Professional Structure

For Pakistani engineers, however, the most important element may be the proposed creation of an Engineering professional cadre.

Engineers have been seeking such recognition for many years, arguing that technical decisions involving infrastructure, energy, water, communications, transport and major development projects should have qualified engineers in positions where policy and executive decisions are made.

The demand has also featured prominently in Pakistan Engineering Council elections, with candidates and groups repeatedly campaigning on the promise of bringing engineering into the civil-service structure. Senior as well as younger engineers have argued that engineers should not remain confined primarily to technical or project-level positions while major decisions concerning engineering policies and national infrastructure are taken by generalist administrators.

Their argument is straightforward: if Pakistan’s development policies and engineering projects are to be technically sound, engineers with professional expertise should have a meaningful role in the civil service and at senior decision-making levels.

This issue is not new. In August 2023, the Senate unanimously passed the Civil Servants (Amendments) Bill, 2023, moved by Senator Engineer Rukhsana Zuberi. The bill sought to ensure that high executive positions dealing with infrastructure, energy, water, communications and works would be held by members of the proposed Engineering Service of Pakistan or registered professional engineers.

The National Assembly’s own records also show that its Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat considered the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in May 2023.

The proposed federal restructuring therefore arrives at a time when the engineering community already has a legislative history behind its demand for greater representation in government decision-making.

From Generalists to Specialists

The government’s new proposal appears to recognize a problem that engineers have been highlighting for years: the traditional bureaucracy has largely relied on generalist recruitment, with officers potentially moving between fields without necessarily having academic or professional qualifications in the sectors they are asked to administer.

Under the proposed reforms, the government plans to introduce 11 professional cadres covering areas including Human Resources, Law, Engineering, Science and Technology, IT and Telecom, Energy, Climate, Agriculture and Forestry, Education and Health.

The stated objective is to match people with the expertise required for their responsibilities.

This represents a potentially significant change in the philosophy of federal administration. Instead of assuming that a generalist officer can effectively manage every specialized sector, the proposed system would place greater emphasis on professional knowledge and specialization.

National Executive Service Proposed

Another major component is the proposed National Executive Service (NES).

Under the proposed arrangement, positions at BS-20 and above would be opened to competition on five-year contracts against publicly announced performance targets. Serving government officers, private-sector professionals and academics could compete for these positions on an equal basis. The Police Service and Foreign Service would remain outside the proposed NES.

The proposal would also transform the Establishment Division into a Human Resource and Organization Development Division, while reducing federal decision-making from five tiers to three.

The reform package seeks to make promotion increasingly dependent on performance and professional competence rather than simply seniority.

Lessons From the Military Model

The proposed reforms also draw on human-resource practices used by the Pakistan Army.

One proposed change is to replace the traditional one-day viva voce with a multi-day competency-based assessment modeled on the Inter-Services Selection Board (ISSB). The proposed system would include psychometric testing, emotional-intelligence assessment and leadership evaluation.

The government also plans to introduce a more structured promotion process in which progression at senior levels becomes increasingly selective and decisions are made collectively by boards against defined criteria rather than through individual discretion.

For engineers, the emphasis on specialization could be particularly important. The proposed system aims to ensure that officials are recruited and placed according to their professional expertise—the principle described in the reform package as “the right person for the right job.”

CSS Will Remain—but Will Change

The government is not proposing to abolish the CSS examination.

Instead, the examination process would be redesigned. Candidates would retain the option of attempting five compulsory papers—Essay, Précis and Composition, Islamiat, Pakistan Studies and Current Affairs—in Urdu, while functional proficiency in English would remain a screening requirement.

The preliminary test threshold would rise from 33 per cent to 40 per cent, analytical reasoning would be added and negative marking would be removed.

The recruitment process would also be fully digitized, with the government targeting completion within six months or less. Published assessment criteria would be introduced, while measures would be taken to fill unoccupied quota seats for Balochistan, Sindh, minorities and women.

Performance Linked to Rewards

The reforms also propose a fundamental change in how government officials are evaluated.

Each ministry would enter into an annual performance agreement with the prime minister, with individual targets flowing from those agreements. Officials would be evaluated twice a year.

The proposal further suggests allocating 5 per cent of employee-related expenditure for performance-based honoraria, effectively linking financial rewards to measurable performance.

The National Management Course would also be reduced from 18 weeks to 10 weeks, while existing national and specialized training institutions would be brought together under a proposed National University of Public Administration.

A retirement package has also been proposed, including a Rs5 million lump-sum component financed through monthly deductions and subsidized health insurance.

A Long-Standing Demand Meets a New Reform

For the engineering profession, the timing of the proposal is significant.

Engineers have not merely been asking for more jobs in government; their argument has been about representation in decision-making. Pakistan spends billions on dams, roads, power projects, water schemes, buildings, transport systems, telecommunications and other infrastructure. Engineers argue that the people responsible for designing, regulating and implementing such projects should also have a stronger institutional voice when policies governing them are formulated.

The Senate’s 2023 legislation reflected precisely this concern, seeking to reserve specified senior executive positions related to infrastructure and other technical sectors for engineering professionals.

Whether the new federal reform package will finally translate that longstanding demand into a functioning Engineering Service remains a separate question. The announcement is a proposed restructuring package, not by itself evidence that every element has already been implemented.

The government says no constitutional amendment would be required. After approval, an implementation committee would oversee the process, report to the prime minister every month and aim for full implementation within 120 days.

For Pakistan’s engineers, the debate has now moved to a new stage. After years of election campaigns, professional advocacy and parliamentary efforts to secure a place for engineering within the civil-service structure, the word “Engineering” has now appeared explicitly among the proposed new professional cadres of the federal bureaucracy. The real test will be whether that proposal becomes an actual service structure—and whether engineers eventually move from being technical advisers and project executors to becoming an integral part of the policy-making machinery of the Pakistani state.

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