LAHORE  - Treading on the wrong path and following the footsteps of previous governments, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regime has decided to appoint Muhammad Zafarullah Khan as Federal law secretary on contract basis.
Although, the incumbent government advertised the vacancy in newspapers to observe transparency, but to appoint someone on law secretary post on contract basis is against Civil Servants Act. The present government intends to install new law secretary replacing Federal Law Secretary Justice (r) Muhammad Raza Khan.  Justice (r) Muhammad Raza Khan has served as chief justice of Peshawar High Court. Twenty-six candidates had expressed their desire for appointment as Law Secretary in response to the present government’s advertisement. Out of them two candidates – Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and Dr Sajid Qureshi -  were shortlisted after scrutiny by a high level board. This board comprised Federal Secretary Establishment Shahid Rasheed, Secretary Cabinet Division Sami Saeed and Finance Secretary Waqar Masood.
The board has finalized Zafarullah’s name for the post and has forwarded the same to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for final approval. It merits mentioning here that as per Section 9 of the Civil Servants Act no one can be appointed on this seat on contract basis. The candidate going to become federal secretary must have work experience as additional secretary and he should belong to one of the nine groups of the federal civil service.
Previous governments, in violation of the Civil Servants Act, had appointed people on contract bases and the present regime is also going to follow the footsteps of the past governments.