ISLAMABAD: Four officers of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in grade 19 have been promoted to BPS-20 with immediate effect.

Those promoted by the departmental promotion committee are Haroon Khan and Farid Afridi, both serving as directors at the office of the provincial election commissioner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Abdul Qayyum Shinwari, regional election commissioner of Kohat, and Shahid Iqbal, director of political finance at the ECP secretariat.

In addition, six officers have been promoted to BPS 19. They are Saeed A. Khan, deputy director of Strategic Issues Monitoring Section (SIMS); Waseem Ahmad, deputy director (establishment); Amir Javed Syed, district election commissioner (DEC), Khushab; Muhammad Sharif, DEC of Kalat; Aziz Bahadur, DEC of Rawalpindi; and Amir Ash­faq Qureshi, DEC of Lahore.

According to an official notification, the officers will be on probation for one year after which it would be deemed to have been extended for another year if no orders are issued.

The notification also says that the promotions had been made without any prejudice to officers who are senior to them and whose cases had been deferred and they will retain their seniority when promoted.

Informed sources said that the ECP’s departmental promotion committee would meet again in a couple of weeks to consider cases for promotions of officers in grades 17, 18 and 21.

The sources said that all the four sitting provincial election commissioners were holding positions on charge and they were BPS 20 officers.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2020