ISLAMABAD: The Central Selection Board (CSB) has recommended promotion of bureaucrats belonging to the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), Secretariat Group and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in BS-21 and BS-20.

Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) chairman Zahid Saeed convened a meeting of the board from Jan 4 to 6 to consider 396 officers for promotion. According to its agenda, the CSB is considering promotions of all service cadres of the civil bureaucracy.

Sources in the CSB said the newly appointed chairman of the commission was taking too much time to examine the case of each and every officer, with the result that the board was much behind its schedule. They explained that the board was supposed to examine the promotion of PSP officers at 10.45am, Secretariat Group officers at 12.15pm, PAS at 2pm and Information Group at 4pm on Monday, but the CSB had hardly considered the PSP and Secretariat Group officers till 11pm.

According to the sources, the CSB recommended the promotion of incumbent Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), Lahore, Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, Jan Mohammad, Sajjad Afzal Afridi, Mohammad Arif Hanif, Mohammad Amin Yousafzai and Farhat Ali Junejo in BS-21. PSP officers were also promoted in BS-20.

PSP, PAS, Secretariat Group, FBR bureaucrats considered for promotion so far

Once again the board rejected the name of outgoing CCPO Lahore Deputy Inspector General Mohammad Umer Sheikh and others for promotion in BS-21.

The CSB had in its last year meeting too not recommended his name for promotion. DIG Sheikh had filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court against the CSB’s decision, which was dismissed by the IHC chief justice.

A report of the Establishment Division and CSB submitted to the IHC in response to the petition stated that “during his [Sheikh] four-year posting in Washington DC, his performance evaluation reports (PERs) were downgraded four times. Seven PERs of the officer have been downgraded during his career”.

Mr Sheikh in his petition had expressed doubts over the integrity of CSB members, alleging that the board had superseded him to promote a junior but ‘blue-eyed’ person of influential agencies in BS-21, even though the latter was once a suspect in Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case and also ‘responsible’ for the ‘fake’ encounter in Sahiwal.

The CSB recommended the promotion of Secretariat Group officers Alamgir Ahmed Khan, M. Bilal, Mohammad Khurshid, Tariq Rashid, Jamil Anwar, Samar Ehsan, Tariq Moj, Iftikhar Gillani, Taimoor Tajammul, Syed Moazzam Ali, Mir Hassan Naqvi, Qamar Sarwar Abbasi, Saad Abbasi, Alam Zeb, Ashfaq Ghumman, Sajid Qazi, Rizwan Sheikh, Syed Mujtaba Hussain and Mohammad Munir in BS-21.

Likewise, the CSB continued its meeting till Tuesday night. However, the board remained behind schedule as except the FBR and PAS cadres, the officers working in most of the ministries could not be considered for promotion.

Besides these cadres, the CSB is scheduled to examine for promotion the officers of the Information Group, Pakistan Customs Service, Inland Revenue Service, Postal Group, Foreign Service of Pakistan, Commerce and Trade Group, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Planning and Development, Ministry of Defence and Defence Production, Board of Investment, Federal Public Service Commission, Cabinet Division, Aviation Division, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Narcotics Control, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Industries and Production, Ministry of Law and Justice, Establishment Division, Human Rights Cell, Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of National Health and Service, Ministry of Federal Education, Ministry of National Food Security, President Secretariat, Ministry of Overseas Pakistan, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2021