PM reluctant to let go of some officials

Gilani withholds suspension of some bureaucrats, including the head of FIA, whom SC had directed the govt to dismiss.

ISLAMABAD: A day after terminating illegal extensions in the service of a number of senior officials, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has now withheld the suspension of some bureaucrats, including the head of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), whom the Supreme Court has directed the government to dismiss.

The appointment of the director general of the FIA, Waseem Ahmad, has remained a bone of contention between the Supreme Court and the executive branch of government, with the prime minister so far unwilling to remove him, as well as other officials such as Suleman Farooqui, head of staff at the presidency and Asif Hayat, secretary to the president.

Nevertheless, in compliance with the court’s orders, the prime minister has dismissed at least 10 officials from service, though there are at least 30 other officials who have yet to receive their pink slips.

At issue is the employment of several senior bureaucrats whom the court has found to be serving in violation of existing laws on retirement and extensions of service. Some retired civil servants have been granted contracts that do not comply with federal employment regulations while others have been granted extensions in their service beyond the legally permissible age for government employment.

Several of the illegally employed civil servants are said to be loyal to the PPP-led administration. According to some sources, the prime minister is facing significant pressure to retain these bureaucrats.

“The prime minister is in a fix over the decision regarding the termination of officials holding key posts,” said one senior official at the establishment division.

The prime minister’s press secretary, however, dismissed the notion that the prime minister faced any such pressures.

“The establishment division deals with termination of services issues,” explained Shabbir Anwar, the prime minister’s spokesperson. “Gilani has only approved the division’s recommendations.”

The list of senior bureaucrats whose employment has come into question reads like a veritable who’s who of the civil service. It includes such names as Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (Retd) Syed Athar Ali, Budget Coordinator Nasrul Aziz, and Joint Secretary Ministry of Finance Talib Baloch among others.

Sources also told The Express Tribune that some of the remaining civil servants are likely to be terminated soon.

Extensions in service tenure are not the domain of civilian bureaucrats alone. Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha have also been granted extensions in their service, though these have not yet been challenged in court.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2011.