Promotion of bureaucrats might not follow SC directives
The rest of the 18 names recommended for promotion come from outside of the list prepared by the ED. The selection is likely to create acrimony among top bureaucrats over the new selection criteria applied.
According to official documents available with The Express Tribune, the Establishment Division (ED) had recommended a total of 46 names for promotion to the highest grade in bureaucracy of which the Board has picked only three, ignoring many senior mandarins. A total of 18 officers, whose names were never a part of the list sent by the ED, have been recommended.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had struck down the promotion of 54 officers ordered by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, on grounds that merit was ignored. The court had suggested that new rules be made to promote the most deserving candidate.
In a five-page notification, a copy of which is with The Express Tribune, the new criteria for promotion is stated as: “Twenty five years service in BSP-17 and has completed at least two years in a post in BPS-21 and no penalty under Government Servants Rules 1973.”
There is strong resentment among top bureaucrats over the new selection criteria framed by the HPSB.
Meanwhile, the ED prepared the list in accordance with the Civil Servants (Seniority) Rules 1993 and later sent it to the prime minister on August 9, 2010.
Deputy secretary ED, Shahzad Ahmad, compiled the list containing Form No: 5/5/2005 CP-IV (1), a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.
A senior official of the ED, on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the PM, after receiving the list, summoned the HPSB meeting and chose only three officers from the list. Principal secretary to the prime minister Nargis Sethi, cabinet division secretary Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, secretary ED Ismail Qureshi, and chief secretaries of four provinces attended the meeting on August 16, 2010.
Acting secretary federal tax ombudsman’s secretariat Inamullah Khan, acting secretary Zakat and Ushr division Khalid Idrees and chairman State Engineering Corporation Ghulam Rasool Apan are the three bureaucrats who were promoted from the ED’s list, he said.
The 18 officers who have been recommended by the HPSB for promotion do not fulfil the criteria recommended by the apex court, said another senior official, who said that the “new promotion rules for the highest positions in bureaucracy may not solve the issue of justice and fair play.”
Even acting secretary minority affairs division, Jaweed Akhter, who is one of the senior most bureaucrats, was not promoted.
Former DG Planning Commission Muhammad Ashraf said that the new criteria for promotions consist of biased rules. “The government should promote unbiased rules to make the top administration productive and efficient,” he said.
Advocate Ikram Chaudhry, a counsel in secretaries’ promotion case, said that the recommendations of the HPSB cannot be approved as Sethi, a member of the board, was not authorised in the meeting as she herself is a BPS-21 officer.
“It is totally ultra vires and against the Constitution and it is feared that those affected will again knock the Supreme Court’s door,” Chaudhry said.
The prime minister’s press secretary Shabir Anwar said that the final decision is yet to be taken. “However, the prime minister will prefer the criteria of merit in BPS-21 officers’ promotion case,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2010.
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