Decision on the delayed promotion of more than three dozens officers of 18 grade in the National Assembly Secretariat is likely this week.
Sources told ‘ONLINE’ on Saturday that summary of the promotion of more than forty officers as Private Secretaries has been moved to Secretary National Assembly who had forwarded the file to the office of the Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza.
Officers waiting for promotion to next grade as Private Secretaries were perturbed and disturbed due to delayed decision by the competent authority as officers of the same grade in the Senate Secretariat were promoted some two months back and delayed promotion of officers in the Secretariat of the Lower House of the Parliament caused a wave of unrest among them.
Some officers termed extension in the contracts of services of officers after retirement as main hurdle in the way of promotion of officers as some blue eyed people had been getting extensions in the service contracts even after being retired from same posts.
Sources said that National Assembly Finance Committee had prerogative to grant extensions in service contracts on yearly basis. Most often committee makes decisions on such matters in a meeting chaired by Speaker or Deputy Speaker.
Meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) had been held along ago and final list of the officers to be promoted had also been finalized, but decision could not be taken due to foreign visit of Dr. Fehmida Mirza.
Now, sources say that as NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza had returned home from Saudi Arabia after performing Umra a final decision was likely to be made by the Speaker this week.
NBF celebrates National Book Foundation Day: For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the National Book Foundation (NBF) on Saturday officially announced to celebrate the National Book Day at the Pak-China Friendship Centre from Aril 22-26.
The announcement was made by NBF Managing Director Mazhar-ul-Islam who said the National Book Day was marked on the directions of Prime Minister Gillani.
Islam said the international community celebrates April 23 as an International Book Day, with a few countries celebrating national book days. He said at least 80 different stalls will be established during the festival, adding that 25 stalls would be established by the publishers and book sellers invited from across the country.
He added that books related to all subjects will be available on these stalls on more than 30 percent discount rates.
He said children’s books will also be available on cheap rates and that poor children from Islamabad will also be invited to the celebrations where free books will be given to them. He said that a book reading festival for both adults and children would be held on April 23, where around 35 renowned literary personalities and showbiz stars will participate.
A book ambassadors’ conference will also be held to discuss the reasons for decline in reading habits and will suggest means to promote book reading culture and to make books available at affordable prices.
He said that biblio-file of the year award would be handed to one children and an adult person and that the child and adult who read most books will be awarded Rs 20,000 and Rs 100, 000 respectively. He added that Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar-uz-zaman Kaira would distribute cash prizes and wards among the winners.
He added that the PM has issued the notifications to all provincial chief secretaries to officially celebrate the national book day.
Relief camp establishes in PIMS to facilitate heirs, says Butt: A relief camp has been established at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) to assist the heirs of the people killed in Friday’s plane crash.
The camp was set up on Saturday on the direction of Prime Ministers’ Task Force on Islamabad Chairman Faisal Sakhi Butt.
All necessary information as well as free meals for the heirs are being provided at the camp.
The chairman was also present at the burial of 21 people at the H-11 graveyard, with Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal and people from all walks of life.
Earlier, many government officials and a number of locals attended the funerals of six people in Sector F/8-1.
Faisal Sakhi Butt said the task force and CDA would contribute to help the bereaved families.
