ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: A two-day meeting of the Central Selection Board (CSB) will be held next week to take decision about promotion of civil servants to BS-21 amid a debate on whether it should be presided over by the chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) or a top bureaucrat. Under an amendment introduced by former president Pervez Musharraf to Section 9 of the Civil Servants Act of 1973, the FPSC chief was made the ex-officio chairman of the CSB. The move was aimed at securing complete control over the civil bureaucracy.

Later, when Gen (retd) Musharraf developed differences with Lt-Gen Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani, the FPSC chairman he himself had appointed, he cut short the tenure of the post from five to three years through an amendment to the Constitution.

Lt-Gen (retd) Kiyani published two annual reports in which he severely criticised the Shaukat Aziz government for bypassing FPSC’s rules and regulations to place his favourites on key posts. He also challenged his early removal from the post.

The present government, through a presidential ordinance, took away the chairmanship of the CSB from FPSC chief and gave it back to the establishment secretary who headed the board until after the adoption of the 18th Amendment. But under the amendment a presidential ordinance cannot be re-promulgated unless a resolution to that effect is adopted by either house of parliament.

As a result, the job of heading the CSB went back to the FPSC Chairman, Justice (retd) Rana Bhagwandas.

A meeting of the board has not been held since the prime minister’s decision of Sept 4 last year to promote 54 bureaucrats to grade 22 which was annulled by the Supreme Court on April 27. A number of deserving bureaucrats have retired during the period.

The delay in holding a CSB meeting is having a crippling effect on the administration.

“During the next six to eight months, 19 of 55 federal secretaries will retire and under the new promotion rules an officer should have at least two years of service in BS-21 to get a promotion to BS-22. Therefore, the government will have no option but to offer extension to retiring officers,” a federal secretary said.

The new rules were formulated in August on the directives of the Supreme Court.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat unanimously approved and presented on Thursday a report on a proposed amendment to the Civil Servants Act to allow the prime minister to appoint the CSB chairman.

Most bureaucrats are of the view that top officers head the promotion boards in other civil and military departments and there is nothing wrong if the secretary of the establishment or cabinet division is given the responsibility as has been the practice in the past.

Critics of the proposed amendment allege that the government wants to place someone of its choice as the head of the CSB to promote its favourites.

A retired federal secretary said the civil bureaucracy had been continuously witnessing an increasing encroachment by successive governments since the early 1970s. As a result, he said, the bureaucracy had been politicised and the officials worked to appease the rulers of the day instead of fulfilling their basic responsibility of serving the people.

“The only way to curb corruption is to reform the bureaucracy on the lines suggested by the Quaid-i-Azam that a civil servant should only be loyal to the state and not to the rulers, which is only possible if the governments stop interfering in their domain,” he said.