Secretary Cabinet's absence from committee's meetings: Senate body urges Prime Minister to take notice

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday took strong exception to the absence of Secretary Cabinet Nargis Sethi from the third consecutive meeting of the committee and said asked the prime minister to take note of the matter.
Chairman of the committee Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti said that Nargis Sethi had been Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister for two-and-a-half year and she considered it below her status to attend the Senate Standing Committee's meetings. He said that her attitude was tantamount to breach the privilege of the Committee.
As a mark of protest over 'breach' of privilege of the Committee, the Chairman and members decided to drop the 1st agenda item relating to Inquiry Report on collapse of Margalla Towers prepared by the PM's Inspection Commission.
The Chairman said that she did not even show the courtesy of informing the Standing Committee in writing about her inability to attend the meeting. The Additional Secretary, Cabinet Shahid Beg again assured the Committee that she (Nargis) would be attending the next meeting of the committee and explained that she could not attend today's meeting because she had to attend a function on World Tuberculosis Day.
The Committee unanimously recommended that the minutes of the meeting be conveyed to the Prime Minister through the PM Inspection Commission.
Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet (Cabinet Secretariat and Inter-Provincial Co-ordination) met with Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti in the chair at Parliament House on Thursday. Senators Fauzia Fakhar-uz-Zaman, Kalsoom Parveen, Begum Najma Hameed, Dr Saeeda Iqbal, Shirala Malick, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi and Dr Khatu Mal besides Secretary Establishment, Acting Chairman CDA and related officers from the CDA along with Secretary Standing Committee, Farzana Khan participate in the meeting.
The committee took a strong notice of apathy shown by establishment division regarding advertisement pertaining to Balochistan in newspapers even after lapse of 6 months.
The Chairman said that the Establishment Division had violated the rules particularly regarding age limits in the advertisement for hiring on vacant pots. The Additional Secretary of the Cabinet said that an inquiry would be conducted about the issue and a report would be submitted to the Committee. Senator Kulsoom Parveen protested that bureaucracy was the biggest hurdle in implementation of Ahhaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package although the Prime Minister had been very open-hearted regarding implementation of the Package and in addressing the problems of Balochistan.
While examining the list of officers who have been re-employed the Chairman pointed out the name of Khizer Hayat Khan, Chief Census Commissioner was not mentioned in the list provided to the committee. The establishment Division stated that re-employment of the said officer was not in the ambit of Establishment Division. Therefore, his name has not been included in the said list.
However, the Chairman produced the copy of notification issued by the Establishment Division for re-employment of Khizer Hayat. The Secretary Establishment assured the Committee that he would conduct an inquiry and would submit its report to the Committee.