February 28, 2008	Thursday	Safar 20 ,1429

KARACHI, Feb 27: In a long-overdue move to address the furore caused by Section 9-A of the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1973, the current caretaker set-up has deleted the provision that in spirit provided for civil servants to be rewarded for exceptional performances but was in actuality repeatedly invoked to achieve out-of-turn promotions for the cronies of the provincial chief executive.

The out-going provincial government inserted Section 9-A into the Act through amendment by an ordinance on Jan 22, 2002. It subsequently became a major issue since a number of senior officials alleged that they were bypassed for promotions that went, instead, to favourites of the establishment. After the expiry of the past government’s tenure, the caretaker government has now undone the insertion through the Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008.

A senior official told Dawn that the deletion would prove instrumental in removing a major cause of heart-burn amongst senior officials, particularly those in the police service. Asked about the timing of the amendment given that a newly-elected government was due to be inducted within a matter of days, the official said that the caretaker cabinet had “taken certain decisions to improve the performance of the government by removing irritants that are considered a stumbling block in the path of good governance.”

This decision, he said, had been reached by the caretaker cabinet, headed by retired Justice Abdul Qadir Halepota, during a Feb 9 meeting.

Besides the omission of Section 9-A from the Act, the cabinet also decided to phase out officials working on a contract basis and OPS since a number of officials were found to have repeatedly been able to renew their contracts despite having crossed the age of retirement. As a result, the retirees’ colleagues could not be posted for the want of vacancies and the government’s performance was severely compromised. Furthermore, it led to officials – particularly those on the verge of retirement – lobbying to continue holding office on a contractual basis.

Misuse of provision

The official conceded that the controversial Section 9-A was often used by the provincial chief executive to promote favourites out of turn.

In actuality the insertion allowed rewards, awards or promotions to only those civil servants who had performed acts of gallantry or delivered exceptional performances beyond the call of duty.

Insiders informed Dawn that during the past government of Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, there were some 22 out-of-turn promotions in the police department alone. As a result, officers qualified for promotion to the office of SP were bypassed by juniors who were, in some cases, as much as 10 years junior to them.

Some of the aggrieved officials had approached the caretaker government in this regard and the matter was taken up by the cabinet which agreed, in principle, to delete the offending clause. Given that there is currently no assembly in session, the decision needed an ordinance in order to be implemented with immediate effect.

Section 9 of the Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Ordinance deals with promotions and states:

“A civil servant possessing such minimum qualification as may be prescribed shall be eligible for