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He was called a symbol of integrity and leadership by Canada’s leading newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Canadians, from coast-to-coast, praised him for resigning his position as one of Canada’s top bureaucrats to protect the integrity of a Canadian institution.
His flight to the top of Canadian bureaucracy and his principled stand, which put him at odds with the Prime Minister of Canada, made Dr Munir Sheikh a symbol of excellence in Canadian civil service. When the integrity of national institutions is at stake, principled civil servants set aside their career dreams and act in the nation’s best interest.
As governance standards continue to slide in Pakistan, the nation wonders if there will ever be a time when good governance will prevail in the country. In the absence of a competent civil service, this dream will remain elusive. Pakistan desperately needs civil servants like Dr Sheikh, who have the courage and integrity to safeguard national interests.
A dispute with the government
Exactly four years ago, Dr Munir Sheikh resigned as Canada’s chief statistician, a position equivalent to the post of deputy minister, the highest office in Canada’s bureaucracy.
It started with the government’s decision to eliminate the long-form Census, which collected information about housing, transport, employment, income and other key attributes required by various tiers of governments to plan and deliver public services. The mandatory long-form Census was administered to a random sample of 20 per cent Canadians. The government wanted to eliminate the mandatory form and replace it with a voluntary survey.
The government’s flawed decision to eliminate the long-form Census was criticised by academics, economists, statisticians and others. They were of the view that eliminating the long form would create a permanent break in the Census because the change in survey methodology would make it impossible to conduct any longitudinal study comparing statistics over time. But more importantly, the voluntary survey would result in sampling errors and self-selection biases that would be impossible to correct.
The government cited privacy reasons to eliminate the long-form. This, however, did not make any sense. They wanted to replace the long-form Census, which was administered to a 20 per cent random sample, with a voluntary survey to be administered to 33 per cent of Canadians.
How asking the same questions to a much larger population of Canadians would improve privacy defied logic and exposed the complete lack of reason in the thinking of Canada’s Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which continued to weaken Statistics Canada by cutting its funding in the following years.
Resigning for a principle and not ego
Dr Sheikh, being the head of Canada’s statistical agency, advised the government that no matter how large the sample size of the voluntary survey may be, it cannot replace a mandatory Census. His concerns fell on deaf ears. Dr Sheikh ultimately resigned.
It is, however, important to note that Dr Sheikh resigned not because the government failed to listen to its top bureaucrat. He respected the government’s authority to ignore the advice of civil servants.
Instead, he resigned because the government tried to misrepresent facts to Canadians about the accuracy of the voluntary survey.
Canada’s Industry Minster, Tony Clement, told the news media in July 2010 that Statistics Canada had assured him “[I]f you do these extra things: the extra advertising and the extra sample size, then yes, we [Statistics Canada] can do our job.” Dr Sheikh had never advised the government as such.
His advice was exactly the opposite, which he repeated for the record in his resignation letter:
“Let me first of all say that it is the right of the government to make decisions, which if lawful should be implemented by any department of the government… The fact that in the media and in the public that there was this perception that Statistics Canada was supporting a decision that no statistician would, it really casts doubt on the integrity of that agency, and I as head of that agency cannot survive in that job.”
Can we learn from him?
Dr Munir Sheikh grew up in Pakistan. He later moved to Canada and studied economics at McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario. He joined Canada’s civil service and, over the years, rose to the top because of his talent and hard work.
When he was indeed at the very pinnacle of his career holding a position that required a lifetime of excellence and service, he took a principled stand and sacrificed his career for the public good.
How many civil servants in Pakistan could claim to be as bold and forthright as Dr Sheikh? How many would put the nation’s interest ahead of theirs? How many would serve to become a symbol of integrity and leadership?
The rot in the civil service has made ‘bureaucrat’ a pejorative term in Pakistan. The revival of a competent and honest civil service, comprising of dedicated and distinguished individuals such as Dr Munir Sheikh, is a prerequisite for good governance in Pakistan.