Order from government not heartless (8)
I believe the answer is:
regiment
'order' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'government not heartless' is the wordplay.
'government' becomes 'regime' (synonyms).
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'not' with its centre removed is 'nt'.
'regime'+'nt'='REGIMENT'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for regiment that I've seen before include "Large army unit" , "a whole lot of them" , "Army group" , "subject to excessive control" , "Military unit" .)