Controversial promotions

The government has found its discretionary decisions on promotions within the bureaucratic apparatus questioned by the judiciary this week. In a short order issued this week, the Supreme Court set aside the promotion of senior bureaucrats and ordered the federal government to revise the promotion criteria. The decision was taken against an appeal filed by the federal government against the Islamabad High Court decision to do the same. The case was filed in 2015 when the government introduced a discretionary criterion to allow the Central Selection Board the power to veto a civil servant’s promotion.        The controversy is not just limited to senior bureaucrats. In the same week, the SC set aside promotions in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and ordered a review. This issue has received limited media coverage but deserves serious attention as it shows the chaos underpinning simple decisions such as promoting government employees. Is it any wonder then that much of Pakistan’s bureaucracy continues to vie for political patronage – even though their role has technically nothing to do with politics. With the SC decision affecting the promotion of senior bureaucrats in Grade 20-22, most fingers are pointing at the government being responsible for the botched process of promotion.             

By deducting integrity marks to stop promotions of unfavourable bureaucrats in 2015, the federal government began a rather unfriendly and long process that it will need to get itself out of soon. According to reports, 64 senior bureaucrats challenged the controversial memo that had allowed this to happen. Twice, the Islamabad High Court ruled that the government was in the wrong. This should have resulted in the federal government returning to implementing due process, but the government continued to appeal the ruling. Now, the federal government will be forced to do what the IHC had ordered at least a year ago. The officers promoted to Grade 21 in 2015 are now awaiting promotion to Grade 22 – but the controversy may stop that from happening. The rift in the bureaucracy is unlikely to be resolved even if the government implements due process. Suspicions of favouritism have already become strongly entrenched, and the Central Selection Board will now have to re-evaluate the promotion cases of hundreds of bureaucrats. This could have easily been avoided by sticking to due process.  The lesson for all our governments is to stop trying to control the bureaucracy. Otherwise, they run the risk of compromising their own ability to deliver on good governance.