ISLAMABAD: The promotions of hundreds of senior bureaucrats recently re-confirmed by the prime minister may be reversed by the courts.

This is because an officer who was superseded in 2015 challenged the promotion criteria applied by the Central Selection Board (CSB) to all the promotions it considered in its June 2017 meetings.

According to a memorandum issued by the Establishment Division on June 18, 2017- just a day before the CSB was to meet for reconsidering promotion cases from May 2015 - the mandatory five marks were removed from the ‘Objective Assessment’ form.

The memorandum was prepared on Sunday and was circulated in the evening, just hours before the CSB meeting.

The Establishment Division has removed five marks from the integrity-related column but has linked the evaluation of personal profile, behaviour, 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.

When the CSB was considering the promotions of nearly 1,200 bureaucrats, a joint secretary Qaiser Majeed Malik challenged the above mentioned memorandum before the Supreme Court in June 2017. The SC issued a notice to the Establishment Division and will take up the case again after Eid holidays.

According to legal experts, if the apex court finds anomalies in the new promotion criteria, the recent promotions made will be jeopardised. The CSB has recommended the promotions of over 400 bureaucrats including Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad, Sindh Inspector General of Police 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.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had approved the CSB’s recommendations.

The Establishment Division introduced the controversial criteria in Oct 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’.

The CSB denied promotions to scores of senior bureaucrats on the basis of this criterion by invoking the integrity-related clause. The Oct 2014 promotions formula affected bureaucrats from the 13th and 14th common as a number of grade 20 officers from these batches were denied promotion in 2015.

These officers initially challenged the CSB’s recommendations in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which set the promotions aside. Later on, the Supreme Court upheld the IHC’s order and remanded the case back to the Establishment Division to reconsider the promotions.

Since the new promotion criteria is still under judicial scrutiny, the promotions being notified by the Establishment Division may therefore be affected, an officer privy to the developments said.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2017