KARACHI: Caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar on Wednesday expressed reservation over the mechanism formulated by the caretaker federal government for evaluating officers of the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) and Police Services of Pakistan (PSP).

In a statement, he said that the caretaker federal government had created a performance evaluation chart for its officers of common cadres (PAS/PSP) posted in provinces which was beyond its [federal government] mandate and did not comply with the guidelines established by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

He said that the caretaker prime minister had approved a 10-point ‘broad parameters’ for the evaluation of performance of the federal government officers posted in the provinces and directed the chief secretaries to take further necessary action accordingly.

The CM said that the performance evaluation chart as prepared by the caretaker federal government for its officers stationed in the provinces was beyond its mandate, adding that the chart was not in conformity with the guidelines of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. “Even otherwise, policy decisions like the ones under discussion should be left to the elected government,” he said.

Justice Baqar said that the parameters, in terms of the constitution, also related to the officers responsible for law and order, which purely was a provincial subject and therefore, could not be formulated without consulting the provinces.

“This, inter alia, is evident from the fact that most of the parameters do not provide for the input of the chief executive of the province, hence, the accountability and performance evaluation of the officers cannot be done fairly,” the CM observed.

He said that the parameters also contravened the provisions of the Civil Service of Pakistan (Composition and Cadre) Rules 1954. “The Government of Sindh shall send a detailed response after the induction of the elected government/chief minister,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2024