ISLAMABAD: The ‘forced’ retirement of dozens of senior bureaucrats is likely to be put on hold — at least for the time being — as the establishment division has expressed willingness to review the cases recommended for ‘directory retirement’ in the light of restraining orders of superior courts.

The issue was taken up by the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Division here on Friday.

The committee, headed by Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad, examined the recent scrutiny of senior bureaucrats under the Civil Servants Directory Retirement Rules, 2020.

The government has under these rules constituted the Director Retirement Board (DRB) to review cases of civil servants of BS-20 and above.

The DRB in its meetings on April 19, 21 and 22 reviewed cases of 1,383 civil servants in BS-20 and above.

Senate panel rejects petitions seeking age relaxation for appearing in CSS exams

However, according to the documents of the establishment division, “recommendations of DRB have not yet been finalised”.

Establishment Secretary Afzal Latif briefed the Senate committee on this issue as well as structure of the establishment division. He consumed most of the time on introduction of the establishment division and his attached departments and talked about ‘forced’ retirement for less than 10 minutes during an hour-long briefing.

The secretary also appeared to be unaware about the litigation against the DRB’s proceeding.

Several officers likely to be hit by the Directory Retirement Rules have filed petitions before the high courts and the Supreme Court and some of them have even obtained restraining orders.

When committee chairman Ahmad, who is also a retired bureaucrat, asked Mr Latif how the DRB would proceed while the matter was sub judice, the latter replied that he was not aware of any restraining order issued by any court against the ‘directory retirement’.

Mr Ahmad handed over the secretary an order issued by the Supreme Court along with the press clipping since the order was widely published in the national media.

He told the establishment secretary that the apex court while granting leave to appeal had also issued a restraining order.

Senator Sadia Abbasi wondered at the ignorance and unpreparedness of the establishment secretary and told him that the Peshawar High Court and the Lahore High Court had also issued restraining orders in this matter.

Senator Sarfraz Bugti asked the establishment secretary about the rules that allowed induction of army officials in the civil service. He said that the army spared only average officers for civil bureaucracy.

The committee chairman directed Mr Latif to brief the panel on this topic in its next meeting.

After the committee pointed out the restraining orders, the committee chairman asked Mr Latif to act in accordance with the courts directives. Subsequently, the secretary assured the committee that the establishment division, which was functioning as the DRB Secretariat, would look into the restraining orders and act accordingly.

Petitions rejected

A discussion on 161 public petitions on the Central Superior Services (CSS) examination age relaxation and limited attempts, referred by the Senate chairman, also took place during the meeting. The committee chairman endorsed the appraisal of the establishment division saying it was on correct lines.

The committee chairman said 30 years should be the final age for appearing in the CSS examinations with three attempts. He disposed of the petitions.

At the outset of the meeting, the committee received a briefing on different regulating authorities from the secretary of the cabinet division.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2021