Civil List

Civil List a record series on the bureaucratic structure published since the British rule in India. Before partition, civil lists were meticulously compiled and regularly issued four times a year by the government of India. Publication of the series became somewhat irregular after partition of India (1947), but after 1960 efforts to restore the earlier situation was partly successful.

Before partition, the official civil lists issued by the central government were supplemented by Combined Civil List of India, issued quarterly by the Civil and Military Gazette press in Lahore. It was found convenient, because it put together in one volume the Indian Civil Service (ICS) cadres of all the provinces of India and, in addition, listed all the major incumbents of posts of the central and provincial governments. In this way it served as an effective directory and organisational chart of all units of government in India. The Civil and Military Gazette press continued to publish this document for both India and Pakistan for a few months after partition, but henceforth its publication was discontinued.

The first printed official civil list entitled Civil List of Class I Officers Serving Under Government of Pakistan, 1st January, 1961 was published by the central government of Pakistan in June 1961. This 487-page document, compiled by the establishment division of the government of Pakistan, included the gradation lists of the seventeen central superior services and lists of officers assigned to the ministries and attached departments of the central government. The list included the officers' date of birth, province of domicile, date of appointment to class I service, date of present appointment at present grade, and monthly salary.

Equally valuable were the official civil lists published annually by each of the provincial governments of Pakistan. Before partition of Bengal, the provincial civil lists were compiled in the chief secretary's office and published by the Government Printing Press in Calcutta. In Pakistan the provincial civil list first appeared in 1954. The East Pakistan Civil List 1961-62 (No.8) was the latest issue. The provincial civil lists used to list all class I and class II officers in the provincial government except railway service employees. Rank, date of birth, and salary were shown in the list. Each issue of these civil lists also included an alphabetical index of names of officers listed elsewhere in the volume. However, none of the civil lists showed employment data in government corporations, nor did they include class III and class IV employees, and low ranking employees serving in the central and provincial government units.

The only civil list published by the government of Bangladesh in 1977 was titled The Civil List, 1976-77. Its structure and content was more or less the same as those of earlier provincial civil lists. However, the civil list of 1976-77 contained additional information on both Appellate and High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The publication of the civil list discontinued after 1977. [AMM Shawkat Ali]