‘Office memo’ stops promotion of 94 officers?

ISLAMABAD: A controversial ‘office memorandum’ was used to not give promotion to 94 officers of grade 20, The News has learnt.

In the recent promotions of officers from grade 20 to 21 by the Central Selection Board (CSB), the federal government used the controversial document, sources in the Establishment Division claimed. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has already approved the CSB’s decision.

An office order of February 2014 known as; “OM of overriding 5 marks effect" can stop promotion of eligible officers. Some of the victims in the recent promotions also claim that a key officer who oversaw all the promotions has victimised them.

"The government had promised before the supreme court that he controversial OM will be taken back,” top bureaucrats insist that the same document was still haunting them.

The sources claim that in February 2014, the federal government through an office memo amended the rules of promotion by giving overriding effect of 5 marks out of 100 for the promotion of grade 21.

Under the controversial memo, the overriding 5 marks were of ‘integrity’. The said marks are still part of the prime minister’s discretionary powers.

As per the formula, if a person gets 95 marks (out of total 100) for the promotion by its wonderful annual service reports etc. but the PM thinks that the officer is not fit for promotion due to, "integrity issues" , his promotion can be declined.

The above mentioned controversial amended rule of 5 marks was challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) soon after the Central Selection Board (CSB) 2015. After a long litigation in the court, the Federation lost the case in the High Court.

Later a review was filed which was also rejected by the court. The federal government later filed an appeal in the Supreme Court by where the incumbent Secretary Establishment Syed Tahir Shahbaz on November 17, 2016 gave assurance in writing that government is willing to do away with the controversial office memo giving powers of overriding effect to the prime minister.

The copy of the letter submitted in the Supreme Court, also available with this correspondent, in its paragraph no4 says, “Now in due deference to this august court’s observation made during the course of hearing of captioned CA’s regarding the overriding effect of 5 marks for integrity and with a view to brining a closure to the present long drawn litigation delaying the holding of CSB, the federal government is willing to do away with the overriding effect of said 5 marks for integrity by amending the OM (office memo) dated 10-2-2014.”

The secretary establishment in the same letter on paragraph No. 5 also assured, “that resultantly, petitioners before learned High Court eligible for consideration shall be considered afresh in the next CSB in light of the amended OM, after doing away with the overriding effect of 5 marks for integrity, as aforesaid and, if promoted, shall regain their seniority with their batch considered in the CSB held in May, 2015”.

Abdur Rehman Siddiqui, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court representing some of the officers who were barred from the promotion, when contacted, said, “The five marks overriding effect has no moral value.”

While further explaining his point of view, Siddiqui says, “Even if an officer receives 3 or 4 marks out of total 5 overriding marks of integrity, this is acknowledgment of the fact that the said officer is 1 or 2 per cent corrupt or at least not having integrity thus government used this law to promote corrupts or officers with less integrity.”