The federal government has asserted that laws and procedures of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should not be misused and dignity of the accused is protected, official sources told Business Recorder.
This issue came under discussion in a meeting of Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) headed by Minister for Law and Justice, Barrister Farogh Naseem at a time when opposition parties are complaining of unilateral accountability as government's Ministers and political leaders are not being treated at par by NAB officials.
"Though not relevant to the agenda of CCLC meeting, yet in view of its social and governance implications, use and appropriateness of laws and procedures of NAB also came under discussion. While it was unanimously expressed that corruption needs to be checked, yet it was also required to ensure that such laws are not misused and dignity of human beings is protected," the sources added.
The minutes of CCLC has also been ratified by the federal cabinet held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister, Imran Khan on December 18, 2018. However, on the issue of amendment in Rule 12(1)(a)(ii) of Pakistan Navy Rules 1961 a new summary would be submitted to the federal cabinet.
The CCLC was informed that Defence Division had submitted a summary on September 4, 2018 seeking approval of the cabinet for an amendment in Rule 12(1)(a)(ii) of Pakistan Navy Rules 1961 to incorporate service limit of 32 years or one year in the rank of Vice Admiral on the analogy of Air Marshals in Pakistan Air Force.
The sources said the cabinet, in its meeting held on September 13, 2018 considered the summary and decided to defer approval of the proposal with the direction that it may be re-submitted after consultation with the Joint Headquarters. The financial impact of the proposal should also be included while re-submitting the proposal.
The sources said, financial impact of the proposal is negligible. As per the statistics of last 10 years, a total 24 Vice Admirals had retired (i.e. an average of 2.4 per year) after attaining age limit of 57 years. As per record since 2010, the retiring Vice Admirals did not opt for commutation and avail monthly pension only. This trend is likely to be continued.
As per current rates, average gross pension of a Vice Admiral is Rs 3-4 million annually. For an average of 2.4 Vice Admirals retiring per year, the current annual financial impact of pension is Rs 7.5 million.
Pakistan Navy has only five vacancies of Vice Admirals and hypothetically speaking, a maximum of five Vice Admirals can be retired in a year. Even so, the yearly pension bill of five Admirals would not exceed Rs 15.7 million. This translates into a maximum possible net increase of Rs 8.2 million per annum, which is 0.068 per cent of CFY budget allocated to PN against pension head. Notwithstanding PN cannot afford to retire five Vice Admirals every year. This is so because every three years, when the changeover of Chief of the National Staff is due, there is a requirement of at least 3-4 Vice Admirals to be considered for the apex office. For this purpose, Flag Officers are progressively appointed on various billets in the rank of Rear/ Vice Admiral to gain requisite experience. This implies that the retirement rate and its financial impact would continue to be close to the existing figure of Rs 7.5 million per year.
The sources said, as per the directions of the Cabinet JSHQ was consulted and has not supported the proposal. Ministry of Defence is of the view that in accordance with the country's Higher Defence Organisation (HDO), raising, training, administration, moral and discipline fall solely within the purview of respective services, precluding the role of JSHQ. For the same reason, Pak Army and PAF were directly consulted prior to bringing the matter before the Cabinet. Both the services expressed satisfaction on the existing provisions of their respective Acts which provide for service limits of three-star officers. It was reiterated that PN Ordinance does not specify any service limit for Vice Admirals, which is necessary to provide requisite flexibility in their retirement to uphold merit. The proposed amendment in PN Rule 12 would bring PN at par with the PAF, a sister services of comparable size human resource management constraints.
Comments
Comments are closed.