ISLAMABAD, May 23: As eight BS-22 officers of the foreign service are to retire this year, the ministry of foreign affairs has sought immediate promotion of its 15 officers to BS-21 from BS-20 to fill up the diplomatic vacuum.

The central selection board (CSB-I) is expected to meet on May 31 to consider promotions of around 80 officers of BS-19 to BS-20 and from grade 20 to grade 21, official sources told Dawn.

Officials of all groups, including the district management group, the office management group, the police service of Pakistan, the foreign services of Pakistan and ex-cadre, including the central board of revenue, commerce, health and railway engineers, would get promotions.

Sources in the foreign office told Dawn on Thursday that eight BS-22 officers of the foreign service would retire before December.

They said one BS-21 post of high commissioner of Ottawa had fallen vacant on account of the death of Tariq Altaf in September last year.

Six other BS-21 posts have fallen vacant due to promotions to BS-22 in October last year. The post of the foreign secretary would also become available on Nov 10 on the completion of incumbent Inamul Haq’s contract.

Seven posts of BS-21 are either vacant at the moment or would be available before Dec 31 due to retirements in BS-22. These include K. K. Ghori, Shafqat Ali Sheikh, Mansoor Alam, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Arshad Sami Khan, Zafar A. Hilaly and Riaz H. Khokhar.

The sources said the foreign office had forwarded a comprehensive report about all BS-20 officers, including panel performance, quantification sheets, performance evaluation reports, synopses for the last five years of the officers to the selection of 15 officers for promotion.

A meeting of the CSB-1 was scheduled to be held late last month, but it was postponed due to the presidential referendum and has now been rescheduled for May 31. All promotion cases of BS-20 and 21 are approved by the CSB-1.