LAHORE: The federal government has finally decided to hold Central Selection Board for promotion of top senior government officers according to the ‘old policy’.

“The proposal to revise the merit formula by the establishment division is yet under consideration,” Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) Chairman Naveed Akram Cheema told Dawn on Saturday.

He said a list of nearly 400 cases of the senior government officers of various services in BS-19 and BS-20 had been finalised to consider promotion in next grades.

As the country-wide acute dearth of the senior government officers had overburdened the system, the authorities decided to hold promotion board according to the old policy.

Board to consider cases of litigants

According to the understanding developed among the decision-making authorities, the exercise to formulate new policy to revise the old promotion criteria may take time.

“Consequently, the CSB-I meeting has been fixed on Dec 13 to consider pending promotion cases in accordance with old policy,” the FPSC chairman said.

He said the federal authorities had also decided to consider promotion cases of all those officers who earlier opted for litigation against the government challenging criteria of the board.

“We are going to consider promotion cases of the litigants and all others whose cases were pending for promotions to the next grades,” Mr Cheema said adding that according to the given schedule the board would continue for five days.

Talking about the old criteria, he said, out of total 100 marks, 70 would be for the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) and 15 for the training at the National Institute of Management or under the National Management Course.

Similarly, 15 marks would be at the discretion of the CSB-I with overriding five marks for each candidate.

“We shall strictly adhere to the merit to dispense justice while granting promotions to the government officers,” Cheema said.

The CSB-I handles promotion cases of government officers of grades 19 and 20 serving in various departments, including the police and inland revenue services.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2016