ISLAMABAD - The meeting of high-powered selection board is likely to be held next week.
Well-placed sources in the Establishment Division told The Nation that the selection board’s meeting was scheduled for September 16 but it was postponed due to the prime minister’s visit to the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.
The sources said that the Establishment Division has finalized panels of officers of grade-21 of different services groups for promotions. They said that the two weeks leave of Secretary to PM Fawad Hassan Fawad is also one of the reasons for the delay in holding the board meeting.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will chair the meeting in his office and Secretary to PM, Secretary Establishment Division and Secretary Cabinet Division will be part of the meeting.
The sources said that the Establishment Division has prepared new panels of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and the name of Fawad Hassan would also be part of the officers of the PAS who would get the promotion to the next grade. The name of Establishment Division Secretary Asad Hayuddin is also included in the list of grade-21 officers but he will not be promoted to grade-22 due to the seniority issue, the sources said.
They said that selection board will go through the cases of panels of different services groups and it would approve promotions of around two dozen officers.
A senior official told The Nation that seven seats of the PAS, five seats of the Police Service of Pakistan, three seats of the Secretariat Group, three seats of the Inland Service Group, three seats of the Pakistan Foreign Service, two seats of the Pakistan Customs Service and one seat of the Information Group are up for grabs.
The official claimed that the selection board would also review the promotion case of former PIO Rao Tehseen, who is facing an inquiry in the Dawn Leaks case.
According to documents available with The Nation, a dozen posts of grade-22 including seven posts of federal secretaries and five posts of special secretaries were lying vacant in different divisions due to the delay in the board meeting.
The documents also revealed that three officers of grade-22 — Secretary Industries Khizar Hayat Gondal, Printing Corporation of Pakistan Managing Director Nyla Qureshi and NIPs Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmed — will retire by the end of this year.
Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif had chaired the last meeting of the selection board in the first week of February and had approved promotions of over a dozen officers to grade-22.