ISLAMABAD: With the promotion of 33 officers to the highest BPS-22 on Wednesday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf also approved comprehensive guidelines for streamlining the civil service.

An official memorandum issued to this effect referred to the Dec 12 Supreme Court judgment on a petition filed by an official, Anita Turab, for protection of civil servants after a PPP candidate, Waheeda Shah, was caught on camera slapping a member of the polling staff during a by-election in Tando Mohammad Khan in March. In April 2010, the SC had demoted 54 federal secretaries promoted by then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in violation of rules and asked the government to re-frame promotion rules.

According to the memorandum, no civil servant will be transferred unnecessarily. “The normal specified tenure must be respected and may not be varied except for compelling reasons which should be recorded in writing and would be defendable if subjected to judicial scrutiny.”

Even if there were pressing needs for the transfer of a civil servant, the officer appointed on a post must be allowed to earn at least one annual performance evaluation report, it said.It said the provision of making a civil servant an ‘officer on special duty (OSD)’ should be invoked only under extreme circumstances and the period should be restricted to the minimum possible time.

The government has barred all departments, divisions and provinces from using the option of unilateral surrender of officers which in the past had been extensively used to victimise honest officers. If they intended to change an officer, the matter must be taken up with the establishment division and the provincial departments dealing with his service matters for appropriate action.

The SC order had addressed in detail issues pertaining to appointments, removal and promotions of the civil servants and asked the government not to interfere with the tenure of a posting.

“Civil servants owe their first and foremost allegiance to the law and the Constitution. They are not bound to obey orders from superiors which are illegal or are not in accordance with accepted practices and rule-based norms; instead, in such situations they must record their opinion and, if necessary, dissent,” the judgment said.

A federal secretary said all these provisions were already available but their reiteration under the SC order would help the government and the officers to implement them in letter and spirit.

The promoted officers are Malik Abdus Samad, Ansar Javed, Shahid Rahim Shaikh, Fayyaz Ahmad Leghari, Arif Ikram, Abdul Wadood Shah, Ahsan Raja, Abid Saeed, Naveed Akram Cheema, Nasir Hayat, Jamil Amjad, Mohammad Ali Gardezi, Shahidullah Baig, Agha Nadeem, Sajjad Saleem Hothiana, Mohammad Shehzad Arbab, Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad, Hasan Nawaz Tarar, Seerat Asghar Jora, Mohammad Arshad Bhatti, Munir Qureshi, Rasheed Ahmad, Manzoor Ali Khan, Naveed Salimi, Rukhsana Shah, Shama Ehsan Khan, Ahmad Rasool Bangash, Tanvir Ahmad, Tahir Saeed, Abdul Malik Abdullah, Syed Hasan Javed, Ikramullah Masood and Noor Mohammad Jadmani.