The Ministry of Commerce has reportedly re-initiated the process of trade officers'' selection to adjust ''blue-eyed candidates'' of influential families for which interviews of candidates from the private sector will be held on August 21, 2009, sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday.
This is for the second time that interviews of private sector candidates are being held as the process initiated in June 2009 was suspended after media reports of alleged favouritism and nepotism in the selection process. The Ministry of Commerce selects trade officers annually for posting in foreign missions with the sole purpose of promoting trade activities, particularly exports.
However, for meeting this objective the Ministry of Commerce initiated the process in August 2008 and written tests were conducted by LUMS in September. Those who secured 60 percent and above marks were interviewed in March 2009 and 10 officers were selected in April 2009.
Four new posts at Santiago (Chile), Prague (Czech Republic), Port Louis (Mauritius) and Brussels (Belgium) were approved by the Prime Minister''s Secretariat in May 2009. Instead of selecting from those already short-listed by the Ministry of Commerce, efforts were made to oblige some ''influentials''.
For this purpose a covert plan was hatched. Sources said the condition of successful written test conducted by LUMS was waived. Instead these ''candidates'' were asked to appear in a test conducted by a subsidiary of the Commerce Ministry known as Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development (Pitad) on June 2 2009.
This was a unique written test, in which only three candidates namely Ayesha Saeed, (Punjab), Shahryar Talpur (Sindh) and Yasir Ishaque Lashari (Sindh) appeared to fill four posts. Subsequently, all three were declared ''qualified'' for the interview which was conducted on June 24, 2009. To ''mix up'' the proceedings, the Ministry of Commerce also invited 13 candidates of BS 18, who had secured more than 70 percent marks in the written test conducted by LUMS for the fourth post.
However, the Commerce Ministry had to scrap the entire process following media reports. Pitad was asked to conduct another test in July 2009, in which only one candidate was invited and cleared for the interview. So, now, four candidates from the private sector are competing against four newly-created posts. With enough time having elapsed, the view in the Commerce Ministry is that the issue has died down and therefore the ''influential'' candidates can be appointed.
The Commerce Minister is the Chairman of the Selection Board and its members include Secretary, Foreign Affairs; Secretary, Establishment; Secretary, Commerce; Chief Executive of TDAP (co-opted member); Secretary, Investment (co-opted member); and Secretary, Textile Industry (co-opted member). According to sources, the Ministry of Commerce is bent upon adjusting these four candidates to such an extent that it has not even initiated the process of hiring trade officers for 2010 so far.