The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat Wednesday decided to write to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, urging him to appoint Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) chairman at the earliest.
The committee met with Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood in the chair decided to write a letter to Prime Minister for immediate appointment of FPSC chairman when additional secretary Establishment Division Mohsin Haqqani told the committee that the incumbent chairman Major General Niaz Muhammad Khan Khattak is going to retire soon.
The committee expressed reservations over the decision made during the last FPSC meeting held this year. "The FPSC selection board did not promote many competent and capable officers," Talha Mehmood said.
The parliamentary penal while expressing reservations over discretionary power directed Rector National School of Public Policy (NSPP) to provide detailed record of officials who were given exemptions and those dropped from different courses along with reasons since January 2008.
Muhammad Ismail Qureshi, Rector of NSPP, told the committee that exemptions have been given to some people on medical, legal and humanitarian grounds. "If the mother or father of any official is seriously sick, how can we compel him for foreign study tours," he said.
He said the NSPP gives special assignment to those officials who failed to attend mandatory courses on medical, legal or humanitarian grounds to avert loss of learning. "During the last seven years, seven people had been given exemptions due to different reasons," he said.
Qureshi said following the Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision there is no legality of recent decisions of the central selection board. Senator Saeed Ghani said he believes the government will move Supreme Court against the IHC decision regarding central selection board verdict. "We just want to know on which grounds the central selection board had given promotions to some people and dropped others," he said. He said the NSPP should provide record of those people who were given exemptions or dropped since 2008.
Talha Mehmood said that majority of people have not been promoted on the basis of integrity but the FPSC report which he had seen did not mention any reason in this regard. The committee also discussed the matter related to the members of FPSC board. Additional secretary Establishment Division Mohsin Haqqani informed the committee that the FPSC board consists of two parliamentarians and one member from each province. However, the Prime Minister could change the members of the board, he added.
He said Muhammad Bakhsh Lehri federal secretary (retired) has been appointed as member of FPSC instead of Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani. Shahid Sohail member engineering Capital Development Authority (CDA) on a public petition told the committee that following the directives of IHC, the authority has launched operation against illegal Katchi Abadis in Sector I-11.
The committee has directed the CDA to vacate the CDA land from illegal occupants on immediate basis as well as prepare detailed database of those who occupied state land illegally. Osman Saifullah Khan, Najma Hameed, Kulsoom Parveen, senior official of NSPP, Establishment Division and the CDA also attended the meeting.
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