ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Senior Foreign Service officer Aizaz Chaudhry is saddled up for the foreign secretary’s office as the incumbent plans to leave for Washington to take up his new assignment within the next fortnight. But those jockeying for the position have not given up as yet.

The delay in official notification of Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani’s successor is not only keeping behind-the-scenes power struggles at the Foreign Office alive but is also stoking uncertainty among the cadres.

Officials say the delay is because of notification of Mr Aizaz Chaudhry’s promotion to the next grade, but the gossip in the corridors of Foreign Office tells a different story.

Indecisiveness because of which so many postings – Mr Abdul Basit’s nomination as foreign secretary, Mr Ibne Abbas’ choice as high commissioner to India and Kamran Shafi’s London appointment — have been overturned in the past month or so has made the government to look hapless and inept.

Reversal of all these appointments betrays dysfunction in the institution, which some believe is engineered particularly because all this is happening against the backdrop of a behind-the-scenes struggle between Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi for control over the Foreign Office.

The foreign ministry bosses, who had advised the government on outgoing foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani’s successor, had clearly not done their homework because none of the contenders for elevation were then in the federal secretary’s pay scale and therefore had to be promoted before being assigned the office of the foreign secretary.

The entire episode has led to plenty of questions and speculations, but so far no real answers. The government didn’t bother to find out how it all went wrong. The loophole infested and nepotism affected the system of appointments at the Foreign Office was always due for a scrutiny. It now looks that time has come.

BASIT EPISODE: The government’s first choice for the foreign secretary’s office was Abdul Basit, currently serving as ambassador in Germany. Mr Basit was called back in October on a short notice for an interview with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and picked for the assignment. It was then anticipated that he would be promoted to BS-22 when the board meets to select officers for elevation.

The script did not play out as intended. Mr Basit could not be considered for promotion because all available BS-22 positions in the Foreign Service were filled up before his case could be taken up.

But there is a strong belief in the Foreign Office that Mr Basit’s elimination from the race was manipulated.

Politicking within FO bureaucracy aside, Mr Basit had been chosen amidst Sartaj Aziz-Fatemi row.

Sartaj Aziz preferred Sadiq Khan whom he had already got posted as secretary of the newly formed Cabinet Committee on National Security, while Mr Fatemi backed Mr Basit’s candidature. Initially, Mr Aziz felt upset for not getting an officer of his choice, but later reconciled with the development and phoned Mr Basit in Germany to congratulate him and tell him that he looked forward to working with him.Apparently, the gulf was bridged, but others in the race jumped in to cash in on Mr Aziz’s discontentment.

Things started to go wrong even before the ‘selection board’ for BS-22 could meet. The Establishment Division reduced the number of BS-22 positions for Foreign Service from 15 to 12, but the sloppy FO didn’t fight against the cut. Instead the FO mandarins, quite unlike of them, meekly settled for the Establishment Division’s explanation that the three positions had in the first instance been added up without due procedure.

But even then no effort was made to get government’s nominee for Foreign Secretary (Abdul Basit) considered against upcoming vacancies. There is precedence of promoting officers in anticipation of vacancies in future. In this instance, four openings are coming up in the next four months. Had politics been not involved in blocking government’s choice, an insider said, the foreign ministry could have asked the board for promotions against the positions being vacated due to impending retirements of senior officers – Alamgir Babar (January), Akbar Zeb (February), Malik Abdullah (April) and Rizwanul Haq (April).“The foreign ministry goofed up. Obviously they allowed it to happen because of internal politicking,” a Foreign Service officer said asking not to be named.According to grapevine, the board was instead warned that not going by the seniority list could cause legal complications.

Was the intent really to uphold seniority?

That’s presumably not the case here. While choosing Aizaz Chaudhry as the next foreign secretary, two officers, more senior to him Murad Ali and Seema Naqvi were bypassed.

Seniority is, however, technically not a requirement for the top position that requires suitability in addition to seniority.

Going by history, outgoing foreign secretary Jilani was junior most in his batch at the time of his elevation. And so was Mr Jilani’s predecessor Salman Bashir.

It also needs to be remembered that the same board, which ignored Mr Basit for not being senior enough, had superseded officers in other occupational groups – DMG, Accounts and Secretariat.

If the story that Mr Aizaz was picked instead of Mr Basit to placate Sartaj Aziz was to be believed, then even in Mr Aizaz’s case it was Mr Fatemi, who accompanied Mr Aizaz to the interview with the prime minister because it’s Mr Fatemi who calls the shots at the FO.

CHANGING AMBASSADORIAL NOMINATIONS: Two of three nominations made in October by the government along with the initial foreign secretary’s nomination have been reversed – one is that of Kamran Shafi, designated as high commissioner to the UK and the other was Ibne Abbas who was selected for India.

Mr Abbas’ case is particularly interesting because in his instance ‘Agrément’ had already been received from Delhi. Changing nominations after the receipt of Agrément is very rare.

The government was reportedly compelled to withdraw Mr Abbas’ nomination because of the heartburn in FO over his posting. Mr Abbas had remained at the headquarters for a shorter time before getting the prized posting.

Mr Shafi’s nomination fell victim to military establishment’s reservations about his views.

In both cases, the FO bureaucracy ought to have given the government a complete picture instead of leaving it in an embarrassing position.

FO’S RESPONSE: After remaining quite for almost a week now, the FO is getting over the embarrassment as it offered first official comments on the affair, though in the context of ambassadorial appointments.

Putting on a brave face, Aizaz Chaudhry, slated to become the next foreign secretary, said appointments are leadership’s prerogative. “I might add that sometimes unconfirmed reports appear in the media even before formal decisions are taken,” he said. He was speaking at his final weekly media briefing as the FO spokesman last Thursday.

As is the case always, the FO bureaucracy instead of giving answers for the triple snafu has found it easy to lay the dead cat on media’s doorstep by blaming it for speculative reporting.

Good grief, Mr Basit entirely relied on “unconfirmed media reporting” before setting out for farewell calls. No one is either talking about the note that was sent to Berlin by the foreign secretary’s office that Mr Jilani would leave on December 1 for Washington and Mr Basit should plan his return to Islamabad accordingly.