Final Electoral Rolls to be completed today: elections to be held under old constituencies, PAC told

Final Electoral Rolls will be completed by today (Tuesday) which will be displayed later on the same day in all offices of the election commission, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan disclosed to National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday. Chairman PAC Nadeem Afzal Gondal chaired the meeting of PAC which reviewed the accounts of Election Commission of Pakistan.
Up coming election will be based on old constituencies as national population census has not been held in time. Summary for holding population census is pending with Council of Common Interest (CCI). If census would have been conducted this year the results will be compiled till December 2013, Secretary Election Commission Ishtiaq Ahmad said. In another case, PAC directed Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas (KANA) to submit the record of Rs 188 million disbursed for the rehabilitation of the affected of Indian firing people on the line of control.
The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) observed that an amount of Rs 188 million was advanced to various government organisations, individuals and firms that had either not been adjusted since 1998 onwards or adjustment was not shown to audit. The PAC took review of the accounts of 'Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan' for the year 2005-06. The PAC directed Establishment Division to formulate a policy for determination of time limit of officer on Special Duty (OSD) after finding that in 2005-06, 78 civil servants served as OSD for 100 months.
Nadeem Afzal Gondal chairing the PAC meeting observed during 2005-06, the number of OSDs reached to 250 which were recorded as very high. These government officials drew salaries and other perks and privileges up to 100 months for nothing. A hefty amount of Rs 22.6 million was wasted on them.
Secretary Establishment Division Taimur Azmat Osman said that no policy exists which fix the time limit of OSD. He further revealed that such policy could not be formulated during the tenures of political governments. However, chairman directed the secretary to formulate the policy within 6 weeks and to move the summary to the prime minister for approval.
Answering a question of a Member PAC Yasmeen Rehman, Secretary replied that currently 25 civil servants including 3 grade 22 bureaucrats were serving as OSD. He further explained that OSD was not a permanent post but created temporarily. MQM's Haider Abbas Rizvi asked the Secretary to present an evaluation report of the total cost incurred on a civil servant so that overall financial impact of bureaucracy could be determined. Secretary said the division carried out an exercise to determine the salary of civil servants but not overall cost.
Chairman also directed the Establishment Division to formulate a policy of contract employment and re-employment. Earlier, Secretary said the services were hired on need base and there was no specific rules of hiring. Chairman also criticised the government's rules which do not allow that a civil servant be taken to task after retirement. Pensions rules allow to make individual accountable within one year of his retirement.
He directed the secretary to amend the rules so that civil servants after retirement could be called and made accountable. The PAC also reviewed the accounts of 'civil service reform programme'. The committee was informed that grade 20 and grade 21 officers were sent abroad on six weeks training. The programme was initiated after approval from the then prime minister in 2005, the programme continued till 2009.
Chairman also directed Establishment Division to evaluate the trainees as an amount of $26 million was spent on the training on these civil servants. This was World Bank funded programme. Secretary said that six trainee did not submit their degrees to the division. So far 363 officers were sent abroad on training. Chairman directed to recover the amount of those who failed to submit their degrees to division and report in 10 days.