ABSTRACT
Pakistan’s administrative heritage-a profound amalgam of contradictions-continues to captivate today’s bureaucracy with its pulsating colorfulness. Pakistan was considered a brand new country carved out of British India in the name of Islam on August 14, 1947. However, there were long interludes in the classical period of its history during the Persian, Greek, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian, Kushan, and Hun eras when the territories of present Pakistan were separate from the rest of India. The historic agreements and disagreements of opposing rulers, about the quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions of the district head, still haunt the policy debates of today’s Pakistan. When Pakistan came into being, the district leader was called the deputy commissioner & district magistrate (DC & DM). In 2001, along with the quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, his job title was changed to district coordination officer (DCO). The question is: What are the implications of such changes for sustaining democracy in this developing country?
