ISLAMABAD, May 15: Sixteen candidates put on the waiting list after clearing the exam for the Income Tax Officer (ITO) are waiting for their appointment against the requisitioned posts offered by the Central Board of Revenue (CBR). Talking to Dawn here on Sunday, a delegation of the unappointed candidates said the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) had directed the CBR to appoint all the candidates on the waiting against the vacant posts.

They said about 18,000 candidates appeared in a competitive examination conducted by the FPSC for 75 posts of ITO out of which 226 were declared qualified and offer letters were issued to 75 of them. However, 59 candidates joined the CBR, while the remaining 16 posts had still not been filled.

“Under the FPSC rules and past precedents, the commission does not go for two competitive examinations for the offered posts and the vacant posts are filled by appointing top most candidates on the waiting list. There is an example that two waiting lists were called for appointment of the last badge of the ITOs,” they said.

They said the Directorate of Training (Income Tax Lahore) had also requested the CBR to send the rest of 16 candidates for training to fill the remaining posts.

The successful candidates said they had already met the CBR chairman, Abdullah Yousaf, and requested him to appoint the eligible candidates against the remaining posts, however, nothing had been done in this regard.

When this reporter contacted Abdullah Yousaf, he admitted that a few candidates did not accept the offer letter due to which some of the posts were still vacant.

“We have taken up the mater with the FPSC and we will follow the rules and procedure to be suggested by the commission to fill the remaining posts,” he said.