ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Monday expressed annoyance over the delay of almost two years in appointments in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and directed the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) to expedite the process.

A representative of the FPSC claimed that the results were delayed due to a large number of applications received for the posts of assistant director and inspector investigation and promised that the results will be announced by the end of the current month.

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat held a meeting in Parliament House with JUI-F Senator Talha Mehmood in the chair.Senator Kulsoom Parveen had asked on the floor of the upper house that a test was conducted in January 2019 but its results were yet to be announced.

In a previous meeting, the FPSC had informed of the committee that 200,000 applications had been received for the posts of assistant director and inspector investigation in the FIA. The candidates were called for multiple choice questions and 29,000 of them were shortlisted for the posts of assistant director and 89,000 for the posts of inspector.

All the shortlisted candidates were called for a written examination but 11,500 of them participated in the written exam for the posts of AD and 28,000 for the posts of inspector.

The FPSC had said results were being complied and after that successful candidates will be invited for interviews. Moreover, it was claimed that the process of recruitment was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Senator Kulsoom Parveen had said the reply was not satisfactory and suggested that the committee should look into it.

On Monday, the chairman of the committee said the FPSC in the last meeting had promised that the results would be announced in the first week of October. He asked why the announcement was delayed.

The FPSC representative informed the committee that it took time to scrutinise applications. He also said transparency was ensured in the exams so that the candidates would be appointed on merit.

He said the results for the posts of assistant director will be announced by October 22 and that for the posts of inspector on October 30.

Senator Parveen said it was strange that the date to announce the results had been delayed thrice.

The committee sought a detailed report on the appointments in its next meeting.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020