Not by the book: Rules ignored in appointing PCBL head

Mushtaq Anjum was appointed without applying for the post.

LAHORE:

The government did not follow the rules and procedure in appointing the chairman of the Punjab Cooperatives Board of Liquidation (PCBL), The Express Tribune has learnt.

The Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) issued a notification on February 25, appointing Mushtaq Ahmad Anjum, a retired Provincial Management Services (PMS) officer of BS-20, as chairman of the board.

After the cooperative finance corporations went bankrupt in 1991, the government had introduced the Punjab Undesirable Cooperative Societies Act 1993 giving control of properties owned by them to the PCBL.

The board owns agricultural and commercial land and urban properties worth billions of rupees. It is authorised to sell properties and assets, grabbed by private people, and compensate the affected families.

On April 9, 2012, the Cooperatives Department – an administrative department of the PCBL – had invited applications for the appointment.

Anjum was not among the 18 candidates who had applied for the office and were subsequently interviewed by a committee. The government had tasked a Board of Revenue (BoR) member with supervising the PCBL until a chairman was appointed.

“Anjum had not applied and was, therefore, not eligible,” said a PCBL official, who did not want to be named for fear of jeoperdising his career.

According to the rules, the PCBL chairman should be a retired civil servant of the provincial secretary rank, a law graduate with 17 years of experience or a chartered accountant with 15 years of experience in liquidation. The age of a retired civil servant selected for the post must not be above 63 and in case of a candidate from any of the other fields no more than 55 years.

In January, the Chief Minister’s Secretariat had directed the S&GAD to submit names of the candidates. The S&GAD submitted a list of four candidates. They were Anjum, Main Nazir, and BoR members Muhammad Siddique Sheikh and Tahir Sarfraz Awan. Sheikh and Awan were BS-20 officers. The chief minister approved Anjum’s name for the post.

According to the Punjab Cooperatives Board of Liquidation (appointment of chairman) Rules 2011, the government makes appointments following an advertisement on the recommendations of a selection committee, constituted by the chief minister.

The rules say that in order to engage a retired civil servant the government should make appointment in line with the Re-employment Policy of the Re-employment Board.

Anjum had retired from service on December 8, 2013, and was not engaged as the PCBL head on the recommendation of the Re-employment Board, headed by the chief secretary, an S&GAD official said. “His appointment is against Article 18 of the Constitution and the superior courts’ judgements that demand that such appointments be made through advertisements in a transparent manner,” the S&GAD official said.Talking to The Express Tribune, Anjum said that he had not applied for the post. “I was a member of the BoR when the post was advertised. The S&GAD informed me that I have been appointed as the PCBL head.” Cooperatives Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar said the appointment had been before he joined the department. “I only forwarded terms and conditions of the job to the Finance Department,” he said. Services Secretary Syed Mubashar Raza refused to comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.