Hiring heads: Vacant top posts will be filled by Dec end

SC informed 33 departments’ heads have already been appointed and other 15 are in final stage

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has assured the Supreme Court that in compliance of the court’s November 14 verdict, it would complete the process regarding the appointment of various statutory, autonomous and regulatory bodies’ heads by the end of December.

According to the list submitted by the Attorney General for Pakistan Salman Aslam Butt last month, 22 statutory bodies and 33 public sector companies, which were established under the Companies Ordinance, 1984 were without any heads.

Establishment Division while submitting its interim report in the apex court’s registrar office on Wednesday told that 33 departments’ heads have already been appointed. Similarly, the appointments of 15 bodies’ heads are in final stage, which will be completed by December 31 of this year, a senior law officer revealed to The Express Tribune.

He noted that the report also states that after the passage of 18th amendment, three departments have already been devolved in the provinces, adding that the matter about the appointment of five departments is already sub judice in the superior courts. Similarly, it is also said that advertisement has been given regarding the appointment of seven heads of different organisations.

The report further revealed the names of those departments, whose appointments have already been made. These names include chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Member Technical, Member Finance, Pakistan Television Corporation MD, Pakistan Steel Mills Limited chairman, chairman PIA, chairman Nepra, MD Baitul Maal, chief executive officer Trade Development Authority, chairman State Life Insurance Corporation, chairman Evacuee Trust Board, MD House Building Finance, MD Telecom Foundation, MD NESPAK, chief executive Railway Construction Pakistan, Chief Executive Saindek.

The government has also appointed the heads of Pak-Arab Refinery, Sui Northern & Southern, NPPC, Chairman Ogra, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, NTC, PTDC and PASCO.

It is to be noted that the top court, on the request of the AGP, earlier reversed former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s judgment regarding the formation of a commission for this task.

Interestingly, the former chief justice gave a verdict over the plea of PML-N senior leader Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

After a period of 17 months, the government contended, through the AGP, that the proposed commission was the main hurdle in the appointment of heads of the governmental departments.

“The verdict of June 12, 2013, should be revisited,” Aslam Butt said.

The court, while accepting the government plea, excluded the condition of the formation of a commission for top-level appointments.

The judgment – authored by Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry – said that the Supreme Court’s June 2013 ruling had overlooked the provisions of Article 90 of the Constitution.

The court had observed in its verdict that there were no impediments in the process of appointments, and that they should be filled up without loss of time by the end of December, 2014.

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