Preparatory to directory retirement: 19 senior bureaucrats issued show cause notices

ISLAMABAD: At least 19 senior bureaucrats have been issued show cause notices in preparation of their directory retirement under the rules framed by the present government some two years ago, it is reliably learnt.

Their names were recommended by a high-level committee headed by the Federal Public Service Commission chairman. These officials have been asked to reply to the show cause notices. Prime Minister Imran Khan will decide their fate in the light of their replies.

A primary condition for a bureaucrat to be hit by the Civil Servants (Directory Retirement from Service) Rules, 2020 is that he is not promoted at least twice by the high-powered selection board. A civil servant who is sent home under these rules, “will be eligible for pension or other retirement benefits as the competent authority may, in the public interest, direct”.

However, an official remarked that the directory retirement rules are a tool meant to browbeat the senior members of the bureaucracy and will be a sword of Damocles over its top echelons.

A perusal of the list obtained by The News shows that some of the officers were not too long ago most favoured by the present federal government and had been given plum postings. At the time, they had earned lavish praise from senior government leaders, including the prime minister. A few of them are still serving in key positions.

The list belies the widespread speculation spawned since the directory retirement rules were promulgated. The names of a large number of officials, who had been repeatedly cited in reports, did not figure in the list, which covers officers of grades 20 and 21. They belong to the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), Pakistan Police Service (PSP) and Secretariat/Office Management Groups (OMG).

The official said the show cause notices were issued to these officers by the establishment secretary after the approval of the prime minister. The establishment secretary is the cadre administrator of three service groups – the PAS, PSP and OMG – under the rules. Obviously, the list came from him. All these 19 officials, selected for possible directory retirement, hail from these service groups.

The official said the list was by and large fair but pointed out that a predominant majority of these officers had earned outstanding and exceptional annual confidential reports (ACRs). At the same time, he referred to a glaring paradox between their ACRs and the board’s decision not to promote them twice for its own reasons. He said that the fundamental reason to put an official in the category of directory retirement is to purge the bureaucracy of deadwood and non-performers.

Of the 19 officers, nine are from Sindh, six from Punjab and two each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan. According to the official federal provincial services quota, Punjab is given a share of 50pc, Sindh 17pc, KP 11pc and Balochistan 5pc.

A most prominent official among the bureaucrats selected for mandatory retirement is senior police officer Muhammad Umer Sheikh, who had received unprecedented kudos from the prime minister when he had made him the capital city police officer (CCPO) of Lahore. Imran Khan had repeatedly stated that Sheikh had been given this posting to deal with the land and criminal mafias and the officer was capable of doing the tough job. However, the cop did not survive too long and was unceremoniously shunted out. In the past, he had worked in the Pakistan Embassy Washington DC for five years under the strength of the Intelligence Bureau.

Syed Hassan Naqvi is currently working as the additional chief secretary of Sindh. He is considered a key aide of Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. He was one of the officers who had been withdrawn by the federal government but had refused to obey the order on the ground that he could not do so when he had not been relieved by the Sindh government. On the face of it, he has become a victim of the crossfire between the federal and provincial governments. Earlier, he had served as secretary for the finance and planning and development ministries in Sindh.

Agha Wasif Abbas is a co-accused with the Sindh chief minister in a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) relating to a power project. Side by side, an inquiry is underway against the official under the disciplinary and efficiency rules. However, before the outcomes of these two cases, he has been included in the directory retirement list.

Retired captain Zafar Iqbal is the current additional inspector general police (AIGP) of South Punjab and had in the past served as the IGP of the former Northern Areas. Azhar Rashid is the AIGP in Balochistan.

Muhammad Misbah is the most senior officer from Sindh and had served as the chief secretary of Azad Jammur and Kashmir (AJK) during the last Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government. Ahmad Hanif Orakzai is presently attached with the Federal Land Commission as senior member. Previously, he had served as the communications and works secretary in KP and additional secretary in the religious affairs ministry and economic affairs division.

Jawad Ahmed Dogar had worked as the CCPO Lahore and Faisalabad during the present government. Dr Waseem Ahmed Ursani of the Secretariat Group had once been the consul general of Pakistan in Montreal, Canada. Interestingly, Aijaz Ahmed Memon is retiring next month at the age of 60 years.

Other officers include Ahmed Ishaque Jahangir, Zafar Iqbal belonging to the PAS, who had worked as the Sargodha commissioner for two years, Shamsuddin Soomro, Retired captain Feroze Shah, Waqar Ali Khetran, Dr Muhammad Azim Khan, Ahmed Bakhsh Narejo, Dr Mir Aijaz Hussain Talpur and Ms Azra Jamali.

The rules say subsequent to the mandatory review upon completion of service under these rules and prior to retirement at the age of superannuation or exercising the option of premature retirement, cases of civil servants will be referred by the secretary or cadre administrator concerned to the relevant retirement board or retirement committees, as the case may be, if it is determined that grounds for directory retirement as specified in the rules have become applicable. While referring cases to the retirement board or committees either for mandatory review after the specified service or any subsequent review, the secretary or cadre administrator concerned will ensure the provision of the relevant record, including complete facts, supporting documentary evidence, if any, duly authenticated service record, as well as such other record as may be considered relevant. The retirement board or committees will examine the referred cases and may recommend to the competent authority, giving specific reasons, the directory retirement of a civil servant.

If the competent authority, after examining the recommendations of the retirement board or committees and other record placed before it, agrees with the recommendations for directory retirement of a civil servant, he will issue a show cause notice to the civil servant concerned informing him of the grounds on which it is proposed to make the order for directory retirement and will provide him the opportunity of personal hearing if so requested by the civil servant concerned. However, in cases where the prime minister is the competent authority, he may designate a grade 22 officer for granting personal hearing to the civil servants on his behalf. On receipt of reply from the civil servant and after giving him the opportunity of a personal hearing, if any, where the competent authority is satisfied that further retention in service of the civil servant is not in the public interest, the competent authority will pass the order for directory retirement.