ISLAMABAD: In a bid to placate enraged bureaucrats, the establishment division has taken away the Central Selection Board’s (CSB) ‘veto power’, which had affected scores of senior officers’ promotions over the last couple of years.

But seemingly unimpressed with the revised promotion policy, civil servants believe this is a continuation of the controversial formula, already set aside by the superior judiciary.

According to a memorandum issued by the establishment division on June 18, 2017, just a day before the CSB meets to reconsider promotion cases from May 2015, the mandatory five marks have been removed from the ‘objective assessment’ form.

Interestingly, the memorandum was prepared on Sunday, a holiday, and was circulated in the evening, hours ahead of the CSB meeting.

The establishment division introduced the controversial criteria in October 2014, under which the CSB was empowered to reject the promotion of a civil servant if he failed to secure at least three out of five marks for ‘integrity/general reputation/perception’.

Controversial five marks for ‘integrity’ won’t be awarded this time to placate bureaucrats

The CSB denied promotions to scores of senior bureaucrats on the basis of this criteria by invoking the integrity-related clause.

The October 2014 promotions formula affected bureaucrats from the 13th and 14th common as a number of grade 20 officers from these batches were denied promotion.

But a majority of 15th common officers were not only promoted to grade 21, but are now heading key ministries and awaiting promotion to grade 22.

These include Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) A.D. Khwaja, Balochistan Chief Secretary Shoaib Mir Memon, Civil Services 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.

Aggrieved officers from the 13th and 14th common, on the other hand, challenged the controversial formula, first before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and then the Supreme Court.

The apex court, in March this year, declared the October 2014 promotion criteria illegal and ordered a reconsider all promotions without applying the five-mark criterion.

The 2014 policy had introduced eight criteria for the CSB to assess.

It specified the source of information on the basis of which CSB members were to assess an officer under consideration on the criteria of: output and quality of work; variety and relevance of experience; professional expertise; functional ability and leadership, which had not been disclosed.

CSB members were required to make their assessment on the criteria of personality profile, conduct discipline and behavior and integrity/general reputation/perception as known to the board members.

In its latest memorandum, the establishment division has the removed five marks from integrity-related column, but has linked the evaluation of personal profile, behavior, discipline, integrity and reputation with documentary evidence.

This means the CSB can take into consideration material other than what is in the dossier or documentary evidence before them. The word ‘documentary evidence’ gives CSB members space to assess an officer on the basis of Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports, an officer privy to the development said.

He pointed out that the joint investigation team, which is probing allegations of money laundering against the Sharif family, had exposed how IB was being used by the ruling family.

He expressed apprehensions that linking promotions of senior bureaucrats with IB reports could make it easy for certain quarters to manipulate promotions.

When contacted, Secretary Establishment Syed Tahir Shahbaz said it was not necessary for the CSB to solely rely on IB reports.

The opinion of the CSB may be different than the reports of intelligence agencies.

According to him, the documentary evidence may also include records of disciplinary proceedings, charge sheets and other such material which the CSB may consider to evaluate promotion cases.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2017