The PML-N on Friday strongly opposed the "Federal Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2010" when the government tried to get it approved from National Assembly, saying that the government wants to take out contract employees in BS-16 and above from the jurisdiction of Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) through the amended bill. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also showed reservations over the amended bill.
MQM MNA, Dr Abdul Qadir Khanzada, said that the Prime Minister had the authority to appoint any one for two years on contract basis, but after completion of the contractual period consultations have to be made with the FPSC to extend or terminate the job contract.
While opposing the bill, Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that the government wanted to exclude contract appointments from the preview of the FPSC. "The government wants to minimise the role of FPSC through the bill while on the other hand it claims to strengthen and empower the institutions," he said. The Prime Minster should take notice of it, he added.
Anusha Rahman Khan Advocate of PML-N said that the government would have the power to appoint any person on contract basis for unlimited period through this bill, which is a serious violation of the constitution. The bill entails unlimited timeframe for contractual appointments, she said.
On opposition's objections on the bill, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said that a competent and credible person had been appointed as Chairman FPSC to ensure transparency. He said that nobody could question his (Chairman FPSC, Rana Bhagwan Das) credibility and integrity, adding he (the Prime Minster) doesn't influence the decisions of the Commission.
"As far as the purview of the Commission is concerned, it is being reviewed because we want to see that whether it is the continuation of the previous government's policies or there should be some change," he added. Zahid Hamid of PML-N said that the appointments would not be made on merit, therefore, the government should withdraw the bill.
Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Khurshid Shah said that the government wanted to regularise those people, who were servicing for 13 years on contract basis. "We should defer the bill if the opposition has objections on it. The government is ready to sit with opposition on Monday for removing its reservations," he said.
On this, Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi deferred the Bill. According to the statement of objects and reasons of 'The Federal Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2010, the government makes contract appointments in public interest, with terms and conditions to be decided on case to case basis.
Contract appointments are purely temporary in nature, made for a specified period to manage time limited assignments including positions in projects which are run by different Ministries/ Divisions, for the life of the projects which varies from one to another. The Government, therefore, resort to this method of appointment in rare circumstances and percentage of such intake is quite negligible. Such appointments are non pensionable.
Prior to the promulgation of Federal Public Service Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2007 on 15.09.2007, the appointments against vacancies of BS-16 and above on contract basis up to a specified period, not exceeding two years, were outside the purview of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) in terms of the then existing Clauses-ii and iv of Sub-Section-2 of Section-7 of the FPSC Ordinance, 1977, while extension in the contract beyond two years was within the purview of the FPSC.
"It was; however, felt that the aforesaid provisions needed review because FPSC was a recruitment agency with specific focus on initial appointments while contract appointments could not be treated as such. It, therefore, conflicted with the basic functions of the Commission, which related to initial appointments and thus created a conceptual anomaly. Besides this at occasions, it led to unnecessary delays, causing problems in the official working of the concerned departments."
Cognisant of the above situation, the Federal Government promulgated FPSC (Amendment) Bill, 2007, amending Clauses-ii and IV of Sub-Section-2 of Section-7 of the FPSC Ordinance, 1977. Consequently, contract appointments beyond two years were also taken out of the purview of the Commission. The FPSC (Amendment) Ordinance, 2007 which is to be introduced in the National Assembly as a Bill is meant to remove the bottlenecks in the process of contract appointments.