Cases of civil servants: LHC directs authorities to ensure promotions forthwith

Besides restraining the Central Selection Board (CSB) from carrying out the reassessment of promotion recommendations of civil servants in BS-20, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the authority concerned to ensure the promotion of officers forthwith. This verdict was made by Justice Ayesha A. Malik during a hearing on a writ petition (WP) 11192/2014 filed against federation of Pakistan on promotion issues.
In her decision, she said the petitioners are civil servants in BS-20. They were recommended for promotion by CSB, however the competent authority, being the Prime Minister, referred their cases back to the CSB for reconsideration on the attributes of integrity, general reputation and perception.
The grievance of the petitioners is that they have been discriminated against and that the attributes of integrity, general reputation and perception are not an objective criteria on the basis of which promotion can be denied. She said the complaint of the petitioners in WP 12094, 3340, 14612 17924, 17944, 19657 and 28201 of 2014 was identical to the petitioners in WP 11192/2014.
She said the dossiers of the petitioners provided for all the information regarding Personal Evaluation Reports (PER) training which were placed before the CSB.
The CSB considered the cases of all candidates and admittedly recommended 40 officers. Even though the criteria of perception has been made a part of the objective assessment on the basis of a case cited at 2014 SCMR 817 (supra), it is subject to the collective wisdom of the CSB as well as to the formula of getting at least three marks out of five.
This may ensure that subjective attributes regarding integrity and reputation will not play a dominant role in the promotion of senior civil servants.
However, for the competent authority, being the Prime Minister of Pakistan, to require the CSB to reconsider the attributes of integrity, general reputation and perception suggest that he/she is acting on personal information or on his/her personal opinion which totally defies the collective wisdom of the CSB and the requirements of due process, fairness and transparency.
The competent authority must give due consideration to the collective wisdom of the CSB on the attributes of integrity, general reputation and perception because these attributes are not objective in nature and there is no way to assess them objectively. Therefore, he must rely on the collective wisdom of the CSB which has objectified the assessment.
It also means that the Federation of Pakistan, etc, have totally misunderstood the pronouncement laid down in the cases cited at 2014 SCMR 817(supra) and PLD 2013 Lahore 413 (supra) which make it clear that the civil servants should be promoted on the basis of an objective criteria which can be assessed and graded in a fair manner to ensure transparency and good governance.
In the light of this judgement, there is no justification to require the CSB to deliberate further on integrity, general reputation and perception. These attributes have been factored into the objective assessment criteria and are subject to collective wisdom and a formula for assessment.
Therefore, there can be no re- assessment on these attributes unless concrete material is provided which justifies rethinking integrity, general reputation and perception.
To the mind of this Court, the competent authority has made a decision which is discriminatory and which amounts to abuse of discretion. It is also found that the decision of re-assessment on attributes of integrity, general reputation and perception was not based on any cogent reason.
Therefore, the decision is set aside and the respondents (Federation of Pakistan) are directed to promote the petitioners (BS-20 officers forthwith from the same date when the other recommendations were approved and notified. In view of the aforesaid, all these petitions are allowed.