ISLAMABAD: The promotion of scores of senior bureaucrats is in jeopardy as a doctor from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has approached Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking direction to the Central Selection Board (CSB) not to convene its meeting till a final decision on her departmental appeal.

The meeting of the CSB is scheduled to be held on Nov 25 to 27 after an unprecedented 16-month delay to consider the promotion of senior officers to BS-20 and BS-21.

Dr Majida Zafar, through her counsel Tania Bazai, in a petition filed in IHC challenged the upcoming meeting and contended that she had been discriminated against and deprived of the seniority through a tailer-made notification.

She sought the court’s direction for her departmental appeal to be decided well before the CSB meeting in which the promotion of a panel forwarded by the hospital administration would be considered.

The list forwarded by Pims included the names of directors Najma Khursheed, Sadia Aftab and deputy director Nousheen Amjad.

The petitioner’s counsel requested the court to issue direction to the CSB not to convene its meeting till a final decision on her departmental appeal.

Dr Zafar claimed that she should be considered for promotion in the said meeting. She stated the respondents namely Najma Khursheed, Sadia Aftab and Nousheen Amjad, non-clinical doctors, were brought to Pims from another service cadre and placed in the petitioner’s cadre which under the applicable legal framework could not have been done.

Her counsel Advocate Bazai contended that as a consequence of this unlawful absorption in a different cadre, the seniority list had also been affected to the prejudice of her client.

According to the petition, these respondents belonged to the administrative cadre and lacked the requisite experience for promotion to the post of associate professor of gynecology as they had never served as an assistant professor of gynecology which was a prerequisite for the subject promotion.

Furthermore, they have also never held the posts of senior registrar or medical officer in any tertiary care hospital, which was also essential for promotion to the post of assistant professor.

It said Sadia Aftab was an assistant instructor at Population Ministry and was transferred to Pims. She managed to change her cadre to the clinical cadre and claimed backdated seniority based on her previous position. This action implied the conversion of job experience from one cadre to another, which is against established norms and regulations.

Nosheen Amjad and Najma Khursheed got changed their administrative cadres from administrative/non-teaching doctor to clinical cadre upon their deputation to Pims.

The petition stated that the respondents also got promotions in BS 18 and 19 without departmental selection board and departmental promotion committee’s recommendations.

After hearing the preliminary arguments on the petition, IHC Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan issued notices to Pims, Establishment Division and other respondents and sought their reply by Nov 7.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024