ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Cabinet on Tuesday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the issue of deletion of word “or” from the qualifying criteria of Central Superior Services (CSS) examination by Federal Public Service Commission.
The committee headed by Senator Talha Mehmood gave 45 days to the committee to complete the probe, fix the responsibility and submit the report to it.
A senior FPSC official apprised the committee of actions taken so far to ensure the secrecy of question papers and details about the culprits involved in leaking out a question paper.
The FIA director informed the committee that on the FPSC’s complaint, they had arrested two officials Khalid Hussain and Tajjamul Hussain Naqvi. During investigations, some clues were found which helped the FIA to bust the gang involved in leaking the paper in Quetta.
“On a tip from a CSS exam candidate, we took the action and bust the network,” the FPSC official said when asked from where they had got the information.
The committee also expressed displeasure over the timing of paper marking.
“Give me an example from any country where students are kept waiting for result for two years,” Senator Javed Abbasi said.
The officials replied that if the multiple choice questions method was used that the exam result could be announced in a couple of months but since the papers were descriptive and also not checked by the FPSC officials, therefore it took time. The time duration could be reduced after reviewing the current policy, he added.
The committee directed the FPSC to come up with a proposal to reduce the time of paper checking in the next meeting.
The committee constituted a sub-committee to address the issue of provincial quota in new jobs being provided by the federal government.
The Establishment Division officials admitted that on the issue highlighted by Senator Dr Sikander Mandhro, they had collected data and found some variation in jobs quota. However, there was no discrimination by and large in provincial jobs quota, they added.
Senator Talha Mehmood constituted the sub-committee to probe the issue and submit its report to committee within 20 days.
The Pakistan Engineering Council Chairman briefed the committee on the proposal for constitution of engineering services of Pakistan.
While appreciating the idea of introducing 13th occupational cadre for engineers in Civil Service of Pakistan, Minister for State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad said he would place the matter before the cabinet.
“The world is moving towards specialization, a separate service cadre should not only be introduced for engineers but for doctors also” he added.
The committee chairman, however, deferred the matter till next meeting for further discussion.
