ISLAMABAD: The Central Selection Board (CSB) is likely to reconsider the promotions of powerful bureaucrats, including the secretary to the prime minister, in June.

Sources in the Establishment Division told Dawn that a meeting of the CSB would likely be convened in June to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court in the bureaucrats’ promotion case.

The court on April 13 set aside the promotion of over 300 bureaucrats notified in May 2015.

Central Selection Board likely to meet in June to comply with directions of SC

Though the court did not immediately de-notify the promotions of officers in grade 20 and 21, it directed the Establishment Division to re-examine the promotions.

In addition to Fawad Hassan Fawad, the secretary to the prime minister, the other officers include Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) A.D. Khwaja, Balochistan Chief Secretary Shoaib Mir Memon, Civil Service Academy Director General Maroof Afzal, Punjab Communication and Works Secretary Mohammad Mushtaq Ahmed, Establishment Division Additional Secretary Aamir Ashraf Khwaja, AJK IGP Bashir Ahmed, Intelligence Bureau Joint Director General Mohammad Salman, Punjab Constabulary Commandant Husain Asghar and Balochistan Constabulary Commandant Dr Mujeebur Rehman Khan.

The court upheld the verdict of a division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which had declared the promotions illegal in May 2015.

The bureaucracy these days is interpreting the SC’s judgment in different ways. On the one hand, the officers promoted in 2015 are happy that the court did not remove them from their posts and, on the other, those not promoted or superseded think otherwise.

The court ruled: “In the meanwhile, those who may have been promoted on the basis of the impugned recommendations shall maintain their elevated position/status.”

The court order, however, did not say the officers would continue holding promotions, or their cases are not required to be considered afresh, as per the interpretation of some superseded officers.

Their interpretation is based on the operative paragraph of the SC judgment which states: “(we) hereby direct the establishment division to place all of those cases which were laid before the board through the impugned exercise/process.”

The superseded officers are happy that the powerful 15th common, which included the secretary to the PM, his close friends and batch-mates will have to go through the exercise afresh and all those who were already promoted will be re-examined by the CSB.

Since the court has also scrapped the formula which empowered the CSB to either allow or reject the promotion of officers on the basis of five marks, the officers of 13th and 14th common are hopeful that they may be promoted to the next grade in the upcoming CSB.

They, however, expressed the concern that in case the CSB recommends their promotions it has to go to the prime minister through his secretary, who is also in the race for grade 22.

In December 2016, the CSB recommended 497 officers for promotion but the Prime Minister’s Office deferred the cases of 97 of them.

During the previous PPP government, bureaucrats alleged that the then principal secretary to the prime minister Nargis Sethi influenced the promotions of senior civil servants which were overturned by the then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

According to the SC judgment, the superseded officers, if promoted in the upcoming CSB, may maintain their seniority and would be at the top of the list of officers awaiting grade 22.

Thus when officers of 13 and 14 common get promoted, the dreams of those looking for a shortcut to grade 22 will be further thwarted, some bureaucrats believed.

A senior officer told Dawn that powerful bureaucrats had planned to accommodate serving officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) on constitutional or tenure posts in order to create maximum vacancies of grade 22.

He said Azmat Ranjha had recently been posted as rector of the National School of Public Policy while an accused deputy chairman of the National Accountability Bureau was also likely to be replaced by a powerful PAS officer.

He said there were rumours that serving PAS officers would also be posted as the auditor general of Pakistan and the federal ombudsman.

When contacted, Establishment Division Secretary Syed Tahir Shahbaz said the SC in its order had directed to convene CSB within two and a half months and the meeting of the board would be convened in the stipulated timeframe.

He said the CSB had the authority to recommend, defer or deny promotion to any officer.

He said the posting and transfer of officers on tenure and constitutional posts was a routine matter.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2017