ISLAMABAD - The Federal government has started work to hold the Central Selection Board (CSB) meeting which has not taken place in the last one-and-a-half-year, The Nation has learnt.

The Establishment Division has almost finalized panels of different services groups of grade-19 and grade-20 which will be presented to the CSB meeting.

The last CSB meeting was held in May 2016. According to the services rules, the CSB meeting should be held after every six months.

A senior official of the Establishment Division told The Nation that the CSB meeting was scheduled for the second week of October but it could not be held due to court cases. He said that the Establishment Division has completed all arrangements for the board meeting and was waiting for the availability of the Federal Public Service Commission Chairman.

He said that government had planned to hold the CSB meeting in the first week of November, otherwise, it will not be possible to hold it by the end of December because of FPSC Chairman’s busy schedule about interviews of CSS candidates.

The FPSC Chairman will chair the CSB meeting, while Secretaries of Establishment Division and Cabinet Division, Chief Secretaries of all provinces, Inspectors General and other senior officials of different Ministries and parliamentarians will also be part of the meeting.

The official lauded Establishment Division Secretary Asad Hayuddin who is taking interest in streamlining the issues of bureaucracy.

He said that Hayuddin will not allow the pressure at any level in this regard.

Sources said that the ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was never interested in addressing the issues related to bureaucracy and no serious efforts were made at any level in the past in this regard.

The sources said that all CSB boards have been challenged in different courts due to controversial decisions.   

On the directives of the apex court, a special board meeting of CSB 2015 was held in August and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had approved promotions of 54 officers of different service groups to grade-20 and grade-21.

The apex court had ordered the Federal government to arrange the CSB meeting and review the cases of those officers who were not promoted in 2015.

The CSB 2015 had recommended promotions of the officers but the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had referred their cases back to the CSB.

The aggrieved officers had challenged the former PM’s decision in the Supreme Court.