Climbing the ladder: Over 600 officers promoted in move to balance duty and rank

The summary was pending the selection board’s approval for 18 months.

PESHAWAR:

In an apparent move to overcome the inefficiency of handing senior posts to junior officials, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government on Tuesday approved more than 600 promotions in various cadres.

Official sources at Civil Secretariat, Peshawar said the provincial selection board (PSB) meeting chaired by K-P Chief Secretary Muhammad Shehzad Arbab at the Civil Secretariat finally approved the summary of promotions of more than 600 officials in various grades and categories of services.

Sources said after the approval of promotions of these officials – which they termed as the first phase – a summary for promotion of a similar number of officers will be presented to the chief secretary for approval.



The promotion summary had been pending for approval since July 1, 2012 before former K-P chief secretary Ghulam Dastagir. However, he did not approve it, official sources at the finance department revealed.

An official added there was a dearth of senior officials in several departments prior to the approval for promotions, hindering effective administration of the province.

“The seriousness of the issue can be gauged by the fact that out of a total of 25 deputy commissioners (DCs) in the province, 20 DCs belonged to grade 18, holding a post that is given to a grade-19 officer,” he said.

An official at the planning and development department said, “A total of 645 officials have been promoted to grades 18, 19 and 20 by the PSB.” He added besides other departments, officials in provincial management services group, civil secretariat and education department were also promoted.

“The PSB has also recommended posthumous promotions for some officials, who were due to be promoted earlier, but were not because the board did not meet,” he revealed. He said despite these recommendations, these promotions will still need to be approved by the higher-ups.

K-P Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Department Shah Rehman, senior member Board of Revenue Waqar Ayub, secretary establishment, regulation wing officials and other administrative secretaries also attended the meeting.

Delving into details, the official said 24 officials were promoted from grade 19 to 20, 239 officials were promoted from grade 18 to 19, and a total of 382 officials were promoted from grade 17 to 18.

According to the official rules of business, the PSB approval will now be sent to the K-P chief minister, and an official notification will be issued after his approval.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2014.