ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered the Central Selection Board (CSB), which recommends promotion of civil servants in Grade 21, to reconsider for promotion 28 senior officers whose cases were dropped in 2014 because of intelligence reports against them.

Authored by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, a judgment issued by the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the CSB to re-examine the cases of the officers within a month and the competent authority (prime minister) to finalise the appointments in a fortnight after the submission of the board’s recommendation.

The verdict also asked the board to decide the cases of promotion of 45 officers of the Pakistan Administrative Services, 11 of the Police Services and 12 of the Foreign Service after determining their fitness without being influenced by observations made in an earlier summary about their reputation on the basis of which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sent the recommendations back to the board in 2014.

The officers challenged the decision of dropping their promotions in the Islamabad High Court as well as the Lahore High Court which decided in their favour.

The two decisions, however, were challenged before the Supreme Court by the Establishment Division.

The verdict says that the appointing authority (prime minister) has to make promotions in basic pay scales of 20 and 21 only upon the recommendations of the board but the recommendations are not binding and can be returned if the procedure followed by the board has any factual or legal flaw.

During the proceedings the federal government had pleaded before the Supreme Court that the prime minister had before him the reports from the intelligence agencies regarding the reputation of the civil servants, which persuaded him to refer the cases back to the board.

But the three-judge bench held that it was not possible for the court to investigate whether the material had in fact been placed before the prime minister while considering the recommendations for promotion of the officers.

The factors or reports of intelligence agencies while considering the cases of promotion fall within the exclusive domain of the board, the verdict said.

The verdict observed that the prime minister had not turned down the recommendations but had only returned them to the board for further scrutiny with direction that the slots for promotion shall remain vacant till finalisation of the cases of the respondents by the board and that if promoted, they shall retain their original seniority.

While reconsidering the cases of the civil servants, the board will remain uninfluenced by the observations made in the reports of the intelligence agencies and will make its own independent assessment, the judgment said.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2015

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