BS-22 promotions: PM Imran Khan undermining selection board

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally interviewing BS-21 bureaucrats before they are even considered for promotion by the high-powered, legally competent selection board.

This is a new precedent being set by the prime minister. As a result, the high-powered promotion board meeting has been postponed multiple times recently. Under the rules, framed by the government following the Supreme Court’s direction, it is the five-member selection board headed by the prime minister, which is legally competent to promote officers among the eligible candidates.

Informed sources in the PM’s office confided to The News that instead of the board, the prime minister has started one-on-one interviews of BS-21 officers, and that too based on personal whims and pick and choose. This situation is upsetting for many BS-21 officers who have not yet been called for the interview by the prime minister.

There are objections that if the prime minister interviews the candidates before the board meeting, the latter’s deliberation would be compromised. The premier, these sources said, should avoid undermining the selection board's considerations.

The high-powered selection board is headed by the prime minister and comprises Arbab Shahzad, Shafqat Mehmood, the secretary cabinet, secretary establishment and secretary to the PM as members.

When approached, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood said that the final authority for the promotion of Bureaucrats to BS-22 remains the selection board.

There are notified rules to govern the working of the high-powered selection board. These rules were framed in the light of SCP decisions to structure the “absolute discretion” of the prime minister, which in the past used to promote officers on his choice and without following any merit or criteria.

The rules were framed on the direction of the Supreme Court in the case of the promotion of 56 officers by the then prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in just one day. These promotions were challenged in the apex court, which had ruled that the PM cannot act like a monarch and directed that his authority must be governed through a rule-based structured system.

According to an official source, the prime minister interviewing prospective officers with a view to gauge their suitability for promotion is illegal. It is said that the premier cannot replace the collective judgment of the high-powered selection board with his personal views and judgment.

“In fact, the PM is pre-judging the officers of his choice by putting on the wrong footing the five-member legally notified promotion board,” a senior bureaucrat said, adding, “This is like reducing the selection board to a ‘rubber stamp’ which will be convened to endorse the PMs preconceived decisions.”

Such one-on-one interviews for promotion purposes bypass the selection board and are unprecedented in the history of the civil service. “It is a step towards personalized decision-making”, a source commented. The source said that the premier can’t pick and choose. “He must interview all eligible officers, otherwise officers can claim discrimination and that due process is being short circuited.”