PESHAWAR, April 14: Reshuffling in the senior bureaucracy by the federal government during the last couple of months has left not a single Grade 22 officer working in the NWFP.
Information gathered about seniority of officers holding key positions reveals that currently no Grade 22 officer is working in the NWFP, whether posted by the federal or provincial government.
According to officials, postings to the office of the chief secretary, provincial police officer and the additional chief secretary are made by the federal government.
But, following the reshuffling notified by the federal government, the three main posts are presently occupied by officers’ one grade junior than required.
Sources said names of the incumbent chief secretary and the additional chief secretary had been appearing in promotion zone maintained by the Central Selection Board since long, but it was uncertain when they would get promotion to the next grade.
The post of the provincial police officer, which had been raised from Grade 21 to 22 under the Police Order, 2000, was also filled by an officer who had just been promoted to grade 21, the sources said.
Officials at the establishment department said posting of junior officers against top level positions was not new because such example existed in the past.
They said posts of the chief secretary, provincial police officer and the additional chief secretary were purely of administrative nature, where delivery of services was given priority than any other matter.
A similar trend exists at the provincial level where the ruling alliance has been posting junior officers against key positions, including provincial secretaries.
In the recent past, certain departments were headed by officers who were junior to their subordinates. Secretaries for health, environment, science and technology and social welfare departments had been posted while they were in Grade 19. The sources, however, said some the officers had now been promoted to the required Grade 20.
The industry department is still led by a Grade 19 officer whereas a Grade 21 officer from the District Management Group is working as the chairman of the Sarhad Development Authority, a subordinate body of the same department. Similar examples also exist in other departments.
Officials said posting of junior officers often affected smooth functioning of the government machinery because it had been witnessed that senior officer did not attend even important meetings chaired by junior officers.
Besides placement of junior officers in the provincial capital, the situation at the district level is no different where mostly officers of Grade 17 and 18 are serving as district coordination officers, whereas the posts are in Grade 20. Only the post of the DCO of Peshawar is in grade 21, which too is filled by a one grade junior officer.
Explaining the reason for posting of junior officers as DCOs, establishment department’s officials said there was no shortage of officers who could be posted against such posts but they did not want to go to districts.
OFFICERS RESHUFFLED: The NWFP government on Saturday ordered reshuffling of several officers of various cadres with immediate effect.
According to a notification, Mohammad Naeem, assistant professor (BS-18) of the Government Postgraduate College, Swabi, has been transferred and posted as district officer, finance, Charsadda.
Similarly, Mohammad Yahya Akhunzada (BS-17) has been posted as assistant coordination officer, Karak.
The government also notified transfers and postings of 18 teaching cadre officers of the higher education department.
