New criteria of promotions: Intelligence triumphs good performance in civil service

How long will PAS officers decide the fate of civil servants belonging to other groups?

ISLAMABAD: The Establishment Division on Friday reconstituted the list of the upcoming Central Selection Board (CSB) members by including senior officers of Police Service of Pakistan and Secretariat Group as CSB members to consider the promotion cases of officers from BS-19 to 20 and BS-20 to 21 of all groups and ex-cadres, to be held from January 9 to 12, 2018.

The Establishment Division had also revised the criteria for promotions to grade 20 and 21, as recommended to the prime minister by the CSB on December 27. The new criteria had drastically increased the weight of training courses in promotions, but reduced the weight of performance evaluations during their duty by superiors.

Sources said that this new Office Memorandum (OM) was illegal if it was not implemented for promotion of officers who have already completed their trainings and have excellent performance reports, because law implements prospectively instead of retrospectively. If anyone would approach the court in this regard, it could land the board in trouble.

According to the notification issued by the Establishment Division on December 21: “The CSB would be held under the chairmanship of Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) chairman, and the members would be Establishment Division secretary, Cabinet Division secretary, Government of Punjab (Lahore) chief secretary, Sindh (Karachi) chief secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Peshawar) chief secretary and Balochistan (Quetta) chief secretary. The Ministry of Interior’s secretary will be a co-opted member (for PSP’s promotion only).”

Soon after the issuance of this notification, it was criticised by officers belonging to different civil service groups. The notification was also shunned by different ministries before going viral on the social media. The controversy was that all the aforementioned board members of CSB belonged to the dominant group of Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS).

It is noted that the civil servants belonging to the PAS group have always been posted on key posts across the country. Due to this, an impression of hegemony had been established by PAS officers among other civil servants, as it was generally believed that they were the most talented and intelligent among the lot. Therefore, they said they have been appointed on the important posts for good performances which created an impression of their dominance.

A revised notification had been issued by the Establishment Division on December 28, which read: “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of rule 2 of the Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) rules, 1973 and in supervision of the Establishment Division’s earlier notification, the competent authority is pleased to reconstitute the CSB board.”

Under this development, FPSC Chairman Naveed Akram Cheema would chair the board and the members would comprise of member of National Assembly Ameer Haider Khan, Senator Saud Majeed, PAS officer of BS-22 (Balochistan) Dr Muhamamd Saqib Aziz, Secretariat Group BS-22 officer of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amjad Ali Khan, BS-22 officer of PSP Mehar Khaliq Dad Lak, BS-22 officer of PAS of Punjab Aamir Ashraf Khawaja, BS-22 officer of PAS of Sindh Naveed Kamran Baloch and BS-22 officer Secretariat Group Muhammad Hashim Popalzai.

It is noted that ex officio members included Establishment Division secretary, Cabinet Division secretary and all serving chief secretaries.