KARACHI – Influential persons in the private sectors have started trying to get important posts in various government institutions, which are run by mostly retired officials, after the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling on re-employment of retired persons.
The SC has recently made the ruling against the retired officials, who, after being re-employed on contract against cadre posts were blocking promotions of eligible officials in various departments of the government. The ruling was made on a suo motu case about alleged corruption in Hajj arrangements last year.
Under the SC ruling, the federal government was likely to remove the retired officials form various posts shortly, sources told Pakistan Today on Tuesday. Important institutions of the government Including Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) and State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan etc which are headed by retired senior government officers were likely to be removed after the Sc ruling, sources said.
However, those institutions headed by people from private sector on contract bases would not be removed as their appointments were not made against cadre strength and did not violate Civil Servants Act. Tariq Iqbal Puri, who were given the charges as Chief Executive of TDAP and head of NICL, few months ago was likely to be replaced with a competent person from the private sector, sources said.
The Chairman of EPZA and State Life were also fearing to lose the seat after the judicial verdict as both the institutions were being run by the retired people for the last many years, they added. According to the sources, soon after the SC move, the influential persons in various trade bodies, associations, chambers of commerce and industry and other private organization have started lobbying for their candidature to various post, likely to be vacant after the existing bosses were removed.
According to sources a large number of senior retired officers from the Police Services of Pakistan, the District Management Group, judiciary and various provincial services were re-employed by not only the federal government but also the provincial governments on various administrative posts.
It is worth mentioning here that the SC had observed that the re-employment of retired officers on senior posts in the federal and provincial departments was a violation of law, which was tantamount to blocking promotions of other officers waiting for their turns.
