Govt finalises NTC member hiring

ISLAMABAD:

The government has appointed Muhammad Saleem as member National Tariff Commission (NTC) whose appointment was earlier set aside by court.

Earlier, the government had appointed Saleem as member NTC following recommendation of Commerce Adviser Razak Dawood.

An aggrieved party had approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which had set aside the appointment. The major objection of the court was that the commerce adviser had recommended Saleem’s name for appointment.

Since 1995, the primary role of NTC had been to administer trade defence laws, ie anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, as well as safeguard duties to protect Pakistan’s trade interests.

The global growth of protectionism and its impact on Pakistan’s trade compelled the commerce ministry to make necessary amendments in the NTC laws so as to make them more effective for ensuring fair trading conditions for Pakistan.

Accordingly, the modified act was placed before parliament, which was approved in September, 2015.

The cabinet had taken up the matter of the disputed appointment of Saleem as member NTC.

On the basis of an advertisement published on December 30, 2017 for appointment of members of the commission, after recording input from Law & Justice Division and obtaining approval of the prime minister, the commerce ministry had placed before the federal cabinet a summary on November 11, 2019 for appointment of the member NTC.

Subsequently, the cabinet approved appointment of Saleem for the position. However, one of the candidates in the panel, Naeem Anwar, filed a case in IHC against Saleem’s nomination as NTC member.

The court, in its order issued on June 24, 2021, decided the case in favour of the petitioner. The court ruled that since the appointment of the NTC member is found to be a product of injudicious selection, the instant petition declared the appointment to be in violation of the procedure. It also, therefore, declared it as unlawful and set aside the appointment of respondent No 3 as NTC member.

It further said that the Ministry of Commerce and Textile shall submit a summary which shall not include the recommendations of the commerce adviser or any reference to interviews conducted by him regarding the selection of one NTC member.

The commerce ministry informed the cabinet that it was mentioned in the summary that it contained recommendation of the commerce adviser for appointment of Muhammad Saleem as NTC member.

The court had nullified the appointment of Saleem and directed to resubmit a summary for the cabinet without recommendations of the adviser.

Hence, in compliance with the court’s order quoted, in light of the comments of the Law & Justice Division, and in supersession of the Ministry of Commerce’s summary dated November 25, 2019, the commerce ministry presented a panel in the cabinet to consider appointment of the fifth NTC member. The panel included the names of Naeem Anwar, Muhammad Saleem and Kausar Ali Zaidi. During discussion, neither Dawood nor any other adviser or special assistant to the prime minister participated in the consideration of the summary.

Commerce Division Secretary Muhammad Sualeh Ahmad Faruqui invited the cabinet’s attention to the judgment of the IHC. The cabinet members resolved to consider the subject summary strictly in terms of the said judgment.

After thorough discussion and application of mind, the cabinet members considered three names for the post of NTC member recommended in the summary and decided to appoint Saleem, who was second in the merit order, and approved his appointment as NTC member.

The cabinet observed that four out of the five prime functions of NTC relate to tariffs, tariff rationalisation and removal of tariff anomalies etc. Only one prime function relates to trade remedy action.

The Tariff Policy Board has directed NTC to take up the following additional activities; elimination of SROs and schedules, duty drawback scheme, comparison of international tariff structure, product classification issues, and advance ruling provisions in Customs Act 1969.

The listed activities are highly technical in nature, which require proper competence and expertise in these matters. None of these have ever been handled in NTC.

Saleem having been an officer of the Customs Department, has the relevant expertise in all these matters, Anwar being an officer in the NTC, has competence in one area of trade remedy laws but no exposure in the other areas.

Saleem was, therefore, found to be a better fit and suitable for the job in question. Furthermore, another existing member in the NTC has the same experience as Anwar. Two other existing members of the NTC have similar experience as the third candidate; Zaidi. Therefore, selection of Saleem will give NTC more diversity.

The cabinet considered the summary titled ‘Selection of One Member of NTC’ and approved the appointment of Saleèm.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2021.

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