The PSC should also be made free from executive influence to end political recruitment process, they said at the discussion on "Structural reforms to ensure transparency and accountability of PSC" organised by Nagorik Sanghoti at Teachers-Students Centre of Dhaka University (DU).

Honest and competent bureaucracy is a must for ensuring law and order, good governance and also maintaining reasonable prices of essentials. But none of it is possible if public servants are appointed under political consideration, they added.

Former PSC member Dr Mohabbat Khan urged the caretaker government to initiate reforms in it and said corruption in the PSC would continue if corrupt people man it.

The recruitment process since the 24th BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) examinations should be investigated and the wrongdoers punished, he stressed.

Khandaker Bazlul Haque, another former PSC member, said there is now a syndicate of job seekers and PSC and government circles that has made it possible to get jobs paying money. This was not the case before.

"If there be a prime minister who will have no involvement in recruitment process, the problems due to politicisation of the bureaucracy will be over," he said.

DU teacher Sheikh Hafizur Rahman Curzon in his keynote paper said, "The PSC that began to be politicised in 1991 plunged into corruption in the last five years of BNP-Jamaat rule."

Corruption cannot be checked just by strengthening the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) if corruption in the PSC cannot be rooted out, he said. Transparency and accountability of the PSC have to be ensured through its structural reforms, he added.

Hafizur Rahman suggested formation of a selection committee comprising judges, establishment secretary, educationists and experienced former secretaries that will consult civil society members for appointment of PSC chairman and members.

He also suggested cancellation of quota system, including that for indigenous people, women and children of freedom fighters, for class one jobs. Beneficiaries of the system could be given financial help for their education and development, he thought.

Justice Golam Rabbani said there should be a governance process where civil servants will be promoted on the basis of talent and honesty and not flattering the ministers.

DU Professor Dr Harun Ar Rashid said it is not enough to make structural changes in various institutions. Rather, honesty, integrity and commitment of the persons who run those are important.

Other speakers included former diplomat Mohiuddin Ahmed, Dr Rashid-e-Mahbub, Hamidul Hossain Tareq (Bir Bikram), barrister Sadia Arman and engineer Kazi Mohammad. Nagorik Sanghoti President ASM Atiqur Rahman presided.