FPSC asks govt to adjust CSS discards

LAHORE: The Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) has asked the Establishment Division to adjust 14 probationers from the 2008 batch who would stand removed from their CSS allocations in the wake of a Supreme Court decision calling for the implementation of 10 per cent quota for women before September 10.

A senior FPSC official told The Express Tribune that the FPSC had clarified that if the Establishment Division failed to comply, the commission would itself make changes in the CSS 2008 allocations list. This, he said, would affect not just the 14 probationers in question, but also all others who have already completed the one-year 37th common training programme (CTP) at the Civil Services Academy (CSA).

The official said that following the SC verdict 14 more women would be accommodated in the CSS 2008 (37th CTP) and 17 in CSS 2009 allocations.

He said that the FPSC would likely send the allocations list for CSS 2009 to the Establishment Division in two days.

The Supreme Court directed the FPSC in the last week of August to change the manner in which it allocated the women candidates in CSS. It ordered the FPSC secretary to implement the SC ruling within 15 days – by September 10, 2010.

The federal government had announced, on May 22, 2007, the reservation of a 10 per cent quota for women in all federal jobs. The quota was in addition to the posts they would secure on open merit.

The FPSC, however, denied seats to 13 successful women candidates from the Punjab in 2008. These candidates first moved the Lahore High Court and later the Supreme Court.

Nargis Shazia Chaudhry, one of the 13 petitioners, had requested the court to change the method of allocation. She had argued that first the general merit seats should be filled, on the basis of the provincial formula, and then the 10-percent women quota should be applied to the remaining women candidates.

She had also requested that the open-merit seats vacated by women, who moved to better groups under the quota, be filled by women only.

The FPSC criteria earlier allowed filling up the open-merit seats vacated by women by whoever happened to be next on the merit list. This, the petitioner argued, resulted in less women getting CSS allocations which was not declared policy.

After the SC ruling, an FPSC official said, a seat vacated by a woman can only be filled by another woman.

He said that Nargis, who would get a better group under the quota, would now be replaced by another woman. He said that the FPSC had submitted a review petition but it was unsuccessful.

In the wake of the verdict, he apprehended, several candidates allocated seats in 2008 would get affected as there would be no vacancies to adjust them. Keeping this in mind, he added, the FPSC had requested the Establishment Division to make room for the 14 male candidates by creating new vacancies.

Several probationers, who are currently completing their CTP at the CSA and may be affected by the SC ruling, told The Express Tribune that they would move the SC if they are not accommodated.

They held that next year they would no longer be eligible for taking the FPSC exam (on account of age restrictions) and after getting a year’s training it would be very hard for them to adjust in any profession other than civil service.

Of the 14 probationers, 12 belong to the Punjab and two to the Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa. There occupational groups are information, railways and postal services.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2010.