Will the government’s resolve to hire professional chief executive officers (CEOs) on merit materialise?
ISLAMABAD: Will the government’s resolve to hire professional chief executive officers (CEOs) on merit and through a transparent process materialise? The in-process hiring of a vice-chancellor for the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) may give a clue. The ex-VC of PIDE retired on December 3, 2012. The procedure for the appointment of a new VC is given in the PIDE Act of 2010, i.e., the law that governs PIDE. Under this Act, the process to be followed for appointment of the VC is to be initiated three months before the incumbent is due to retire. The process involves the constitution of a VC search committee by the PIDE senate. It is this VC search committee, which handles all issues related to hiring of the VC, including advertising the position, reviewing applicants and finally recommending two candidates to the patron of PIDE, the president of Pakistan. This process was duly initiated in September 2012, three months prior to the retirement of the then VC. The search committee did complete the task assigned and recommended two names to the president months back during the last days of the previous regime. Somehow, a bureaucrat got hold of the file and managed to prevent its transmission to the president’s office.
When the incumbent chairman of the Planning Commission assumed charge, the Planning Commission (and not the VC search committee) re-advertised the position of VC PIDE. The re-advertisement has raised several legal issues. For example, can the process completed earlier be scrapped? Is the Planning Commission empowered to advertise the position of VC PIDE? The answer to both the questions is a definite ‘no’. It is worth mentioning that though the deputy chairman Planning Commission is the chancellor of PIDE, the Planning Commission, as an entity, does not find a mention in the PIDE law.
Some days ago, six shortlisted candidates were interviewed by a panel of three people, including the deputy chairman Planning Commission, secretary Planning Commission and the acting chairman of the Higher Education Commission. The duly-constituted VC search committee comprises six members, only two of whom were present during the interview. The panel of three interviewed some of the best economists of Pakistan, most of whom are graduates of top-ranked foreign universities; incidentally, none of the panel members is an economist.
The idea of conducting the hiring exercise afresh seems dodgy and is filled with procedural flaws. It casts doubts on the government’s promise to hire professional CEOs for state-owned enterprises, on merit and in a transparent manner.
Maria Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2013.
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