Promotions spur resentment among bureaucrats

Islamabad: The government’s recent decision to promote bureaucrats has spurred serious resentment among senior officers, a move which intensified the ongoing cold war and triggered a new legal battle among the civil servants of several occupational groups by marring the performance of civil bureaucracy.

Over 179 of the 510 civil servants recently promoted from BS-20 to BS-21 and BS-21 to BS-22 in past four meetings of the Central Selection Board (CSB) and Special Selection Board were said to be juniors, according to dozens of interviews with serving officers in Islamabad. These meetings were headed by chairman Federal Public Service Commission and the prime minister accordingly.

“Government’s apparent push for favourite bureaucrats was causing alienation and frustration among 450 senior civil servants of various occupational groups/ex-cadres who otherwise dumped into ineffective positions in the past four years,” observed a BS-22 officer who did not want to be named.

Resentment started brewing among senior officials over changes in civil service rules as well as in seniority lists after many far juniors superseded seniors, he told The News. More than 70 senior officers (BS-19, BS-20, BS-21) of various occupational groups have already been retired before getting any promotion, he said. “I know almost they all have had excellent performance evaluation reports but were not considered for promotion in the last three years. Around 109 serving officers went to superior courts against this discrimination,” he said.

A looming chaos has already triggered a debate within and outside the civil bureaucracy (in offices of the Establishment Division and the Cabinet Division) where senior civil servants, who otherwise have been pushed into a blind alley, are now hoping that the Supreme Court’s intervention might make the promotion process smoother and transparent. “We 40 officers, serving into BS-21 in various occupational groups in past four years, would not get promotion as we are victim of new rules for unlawful distribution of vacancies,” said a senior bureaucrat of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). “Section 9 of the Civil Servant Act (CSA) 1973 speaks loudly that promotion of a civil servant can only be made against his/her own cadre posts—but it seems these laws have been blatantly violated since 2014,” he explained. Recent promotions to BS-22 are a glaring violation of section 9 of CSA 1973 and Supreme Court orders in Tariq Aziz's case (2010 SC-MR-1301), he further observed.

Around 97 % of these officers have been completed 3 years service in BS-21, in March 2016, whereas many officers promoted only had completed 2 years service, revealed another civil servant who was denied promotion despite court’s orders. BS-21 officers serving in numerous occupational groups, Secretariat Group in particular, are said to be the main victim of this latest SRO 2014 whose legally status is still subjudice with the Islamabad High Court since then, he said. But in light of the court’s order, government continued promoting officers but “many deserving senior servants continuously getting superannuation without getting any promotions due to pending litigation, he added.

“We’ve challenged this judgment on four grounds into SC—it’s a CSB’s prerogative to promote officers, secondly recent court’s order could create chaos among senior bureaucrats, third service tribunal is the proper forum to address grievances of civil servants—we went to the court on recommendations of Establishment Division,” said a senior official of Prime Minister Secretariat on condition of anonymity, who was not allowed to talk to media.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar says the government pledged to promote officers on basis of their performance. “We promoted officers purely on merit. We promoted those who achieved their targets—yes, we superseded many officers in FBR after they failed to deliver no matter they had excellent record in the past,” he told The News. This correspondent talked to many officers in Prime Minister’s office on this issue but they did not come on the record counting many reasons.

The case of BS-20 and BS-21 officers is a pet example of “pick-and-choose policy” being adopted by the government in civil bureaucracy, claimed another senior officer who was superseded by his far juniors twice. “This discrimination is marring performance of officers. Ultimately it’ll weaken the system sooner than later. There needs a shift to review CSA 1973 by revamping civil bureaucracy system. It’s the only way to get desired results from civil servants,” observed Raja Abbas who recently got superannuation in BS-22.

Meanwhile, the government has dumped around three dozen bureaucrats into an ineffective pool of Officers on Special Duty (OSDs) of several occupation groups, a position often thought of as ‘punishment’. Before packing for Establishment Division they were serving in BS-20, BS-21 and BS-22. Over a dozen officers are even waiting for their postings despite passage of two years. Over 20 key positions in 70 departments are lying vacant and there seems hardly any effort on part of the government to utilise the expertise of these top officers.