ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) challenged the authority of federal secretary of Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) and termed the postings, assigning look after charge in the board by the ministry, which holds administrative control over the board, as contradictory to the Establishment Division’s rules.

In the letter sent to the IPC secretary, the deputy director general (Admin) of PSB, Mansoor Ahmed Khan, stated that while the PSB director general was on ex-Pakistan leave, the ministry had assigned the charge to a junior officer of BS-19.

The letter termed this as against the management pay scale policy approved by the prime minister that provides that “the current charge/additional charge of the position of heads of autonomous bodies in MP-scales only be granted to a civil or government servants of equivalent grade and that too with the approval of appointing authority which is the prime minister of Pakistan.”

It further said that the officer who had been assigned the look after charge “requisitioned the services of various officers on deputation basis for PSB which is purely an administrative matter which also involved financial implications. Such decision does not fall in the ambit of look after charge range, therefore, is violative of clarification of Establishment Division.”

The Establishment Division issued an office memorandum on April 9, 2021 in which the clarification about the look after charge was circulated among all the ministries.

In the clarification, the Establishment Division stated that “there is no provision of look after charge in Civil Servants Act, 1973 and Rules made thereunder, rather an officer can be deputed temporarily as an internal arrangement to look after the work of another post for disposal of day to day work of urgent and routine nature.”

It added: “as a matter of principle, the senior most officer is normally asked by the head of Division/Department to look after the work of a post when its incumbent is temporarily away.”

As per the Establishment Division’s memorandum, the officer on current charge cannot exercise the powers related to financial and administrative in nature.

The PSB also termed the assigning of look after charge and subsequent posting and transfer by the acting DG against the law laid down by superior courts.

The letter concluded: “the above mentioned deputations and postings were made by the IPC ministry in PSB in violation of the constitution of the PSB, clarification of Establishment Division, laws, rules and against the principles settled by superior courts, therefore, have no legal sanctity in the eye of law.”

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2024