Feel elated, countrymen, in another sphere Pakistan has made phenomenal progress and left India far behind! With a population of 1.1 billion, India has a total work force of 10 million, which comes to one civilian employee for every 110 persons. Against this, with a population of 160 million, Pakistan has 2.8 million civil servants, which comes to one state minion for every 67 persons in the population.
The total work force in Pakistan’s civil and military departments has swelled to over 3.4 million personnel. The breakdown of civilian employees shows 390,000 working in autonomous bodies, 376,000 in federal government, 162,000 civilians paid out of defence; 902,000 employees of Punjab government; 478,000 of Sindh government; 300,000 of the NWFP; and 166,000 of Balochistan government.
Interestingly, the country has a higher percentage of state employees today compared to what it had in 1970. If the figure of 1970 is taken as benchmark regarding the percentage of federal civilian employees to the total population, on that basis, according to an official report, it can be argued that there are about 147,000 federal employees in excess of the benchmark prevailing now. Oh! Do not mention the increase in administrative expenditure. Rather, it is the other cause to be happy because in respect of ratio of the administrative expenditure to the total population, Pakistan is not only maintaining its edge over India, but it is also constantly improving upon that!
The increase in work force and growth in employee-population ratio are clear signs of government’s intention to serve the people with a focused approach! The larger the number of employees and the better the ratio of state employees to the population, the brighter the chances of their providing good, personalized and dedicated services to the citizens! Taking a cue from professional Pirs of the contemporary times, now state employees also gladly accept gifts, both in cash and kind, from the citizens, convinced that such token expressions of gratitude cement ties between the recipient and the tendering person.
You have rightly pointed out that the ratio of doctors and nurses to the country’s total population is, at present, quite dismal, particularly in rural areas. The authorities have promised, quite often, to take care of that as well, resource permitting. And, nobody should doubt the authorities’ intent to redeem this promise.
What you call delays caused due to increase in the tiers and size of bureaucracy, these are exercises undertaken to minutely scrutinize cases before arriving at a decision. Some times, delays even create bad blood among some citizens and the state employees. However, good and grateful applicants often reciprocate this extra-ordinary gesture of state employees in giving a minute examination to their cases.
The prime reason for increase in the number of employees, as cited by Dr Ishrat Husain, Chairman National Commission of Government Reform (former Governor SBP) is: “The federal government has acquired too many powers and taken over too many functions over time, either by design or by default.”
Dr Ishrat Husain pleads for reversing this trend “given the peculiar ethnic and regional composition of the country and the growing needs of an expanding population. To begin with, the federal government should transfer the subjects of education (except for higher education and the curriculum), health, agriculture, labour, social welfare, population welfare, local government and environment to the provincial governments. The federal ministries dealing with these subjects should be abolished and a national council of ministers, consisting of the federal and provincial ministers working under the aegis of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) should formulate the national policies for these transferred subjects,” Dr Ishrat adds.
All subjects recommended by Dr Ishrat for transfer to the provinces, as a matter of fact, lie in the domain of the provinces and logically these should be transferred to them. Even the matters appearing on the concurrent list in the 1973 Constitution were required to be transferred to the provinces within 10 years after promulgation of the Constitution. However, even 35 after years, the status quo remains in tact. This has resulted in creating mistrust, suspicions and weakening of the federation. Therefore, prudence demands prompt transfer of these subjects to the provinces.    
Consequent upon transfer of these subjects, Dr Ishrat writes: “The number of federal ministries has to be cut from 41 to 23 and the number of divisions from 46 to 37.” In view of new challenges in the country, Dr Ishrat recommends setting up, within the revised structure, some new ministries, like energy, technology development, regulatory affairs, HR development, social protection, infrastructure development and special/underdeveloped areas, by merging some of the existing ministries and replacing others. “The existing 411 autonomous bodies and attached departments, corporations, companies, councils, institutes, subordinate offices in the federal government should be regrouped into 177 autonomous bodies and 70 executive departments,” proposes Dr Ishrat.  
The decrease in the number of ministries, autonomous bodies and executive departments would automatically curtail the number of state employees and the administrative expenditure; while it would increase the efficiency of the state machinery due to reduction in the number of tiers, believe the proponents of the theory: “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” They contend it is a common knowledge that if officials of certain departments do not receive their ‘own-money’ (money over and above the official dues) then they raise unnecessary objections, which can cause costly delays. That explains why some departments are not prepared to forego their powers even in special industrial zones where, as per global practice, applicants normally get all utilities with the allotment of plot. Many expatriate Pakistani wanted to set up industries or business ventures in the country, but they got frustrated dealing with this department or that department and left the country after six months or so without investing a single rupee, except in real estate.
Interestingly, a trend developed post-1999 to create posts and departments or their branch offices at the whim of authorities. Till 2002, non-public dealing institutions did not have their offices in the provinces. Now, even the houses of parliament have created their branch offices at provincial capitals to provide dedicated services to members of their house. Consequently, the Senate of Pakistan now has over 10 dozen drivers on its rolls against four till 1980s. Likewise, it now has 27 protocol officers against one till 1980s. These are sure sign of attempts at good, personalized, efficient and focused services, argue those believing in the norm: “The more, the merrier.” Since there is mammoth unemployment, leaders adopt these measures to provide jobs to the deserving youth (read camp followers), they add.
Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to face an acute shortage of skilled workers and many an entrepreneur often approach the authorities with requests to allow them to import skilled manpower. It is, therefore, the need of the hour to create industry-university linkages so that institutes of higher learning graduate talent as per national requirements.
In the knowledge economy of the 21st century, the country needs people who can add value to the agricultural/horticultural produce or have the technology to provide services and manufactured items. Furthermore, the country needs infrastructure in keeping with needs of modern times. For focused approach on these matters, there is, of course, need for setting up of the appropriate ministries and specialized organizations rather than splitting one ministry into three or four ministries to satisfy the sensibilities (read thirst) of MPs for slots in the cabinet of ministers.