ISLAMABAD: Renowned academician, scholar and former Chief Secretary KPK, Abdullah has delivered a lecture to FBR officers on “Morality, ethics and public service delivery.”

The talk was held as part of a new series of motivational lectures organised on the initiative of FBR chairman to motivate officers to work with renewed zeal. The lecture was arranged at the main auditorium of FBR Headquarters Islamabad and officers in field formations attended it through a video link.

In his animated style, Abdullah dilated upon the concept of motivation, and how motivation leads to a natural transformation but it has no meaning without ethical consideration. He said ethics has been an integral part of human resource management for nearly 2000 years and the role of universal moral values such as honesty, integrity, truthfulness and strength of character had been understood and recognized throughout history in the delivery of public service.

He said the civil service delivery in Pakistan was hampered by problems of hypocrisy and duplicity and that there was a culture of shifting responsibility upstairs (or down to the grassroots) without understanding that change came from within, and it required exemplification, not mere lecturing or sermonising.

“In absence of individual motivation, the change that is likely to come will take a long time and it will depend in large measure on the kind of structural changes introduced in the way public policy is formulated and delivered in the country,” he said.

Abdullah said any successful system of accountability was based on principles of accountability, merit, predictability, sustainability and equity.

However, the moral content in our accountability system was still weak and fragile and needs infusion of a distinction between “haram and halal” to make the accountability system more robust and result-oriented.

To start on the road of individual moral enlightenment, he expounded that the short-cut lay in the recourse towards the Seerat of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The lecture culminated with a Q&A session and presentation of a momento to Abdullah for his enlightening talk.—PR