Get rid of OSD culture

WE have written umpteen times on the subject of so called Officer on Special Duty (OSD) over the last so many years and we do so again just to flag the importance of the matter. We hope that party in power someday would call a halt to the practice of sidelining public officials by putting a label on them.
Bangladesh is unique in the sense that there are perhaps no other government in the world where the state pays a bureaucrat for doing precious little, and that too for years on end. This is perhaps also the only country where promotions are made with such a partisan outlook that the number of personnel exceeds the authorised posts by hundreds. As of today there are 650 public servants on OSD
What was once adopted as a well meaning arrangement with an honest purpose has been given a bad name because of the way the provision has been used to sort out bureaucrats belonging to the 'other camp' by the party in power. This has been happening during the tenure of all the governments but what is reprehensible is that the system has been used incrementally with successive democratically elected governments. As a result, not only has been the bureaucracy irreparably politicised, the nation has suffered both in terms of wasted money and talent.
The government is yet to answer the High Court's call for explanation on the matter. We too seek answers from the government as to why such a state has been allowed to occur? Why party affiliation and not merit been made the criterion for promotion? Why so much of the tax payers' money wasted?