Top bureaucrats – the Cabinet secretary, the Establishment secretary, and the principal secretary to the prime minister – will recommend a panel of three most suitable officers to Imran Khan for the appointment of federal secretaries.
Sources said that the first civil service reform item, prepared by the task force led by Dr Ishrat Husain and discussed by the federal cabinet on Thursday, pertains to the procedure of federal secretaries’ appointment and their tenure.
The cabinet discussed the proposal and referred it to a five-member cabinet committee to deliberate and submit its report for reconsideration of the federal cabinet.
Sources said that Husain recommended that in case of the appointment of federal secretaries, the three-member committee comprising cabinet and establishment secretaries and principal secretary to the prime minister should be assigned to prepare the panel of three officers for the prime minister.
The premier can appoint any of the three officers recommended for the post by the committee.
However, in case the prime minister does not find any officer included in the panel fit for the post, the committee will recommend a new panel.
The reform proposal does not give the prime minister the authority to appoint on his own any officer as secretary of any ministry or division.
Once the prime minister appoints the secretary of a division, the officer will be considered on probation for six months.
During this period, the secretary could be removed or changed.
However, after the completion of six months’ probation period, the secretary will have the protection of three-year tenure.
Once the officer has been selected through this process, he/she should not be transferred until the completion of the tenure i.e. three years, according to the reform proposal.
However, in cases where a disciplinary action is initiated against the officer for corruption, negligence of duties, insubordination, misconduct or failure to meet the performance targets assigned to him/her, etc, and evidence has been established, the prime minister can decide that the officer should be moved out of the office before completing the tenure.
While making such transfers, reasons must be written on the file.
Husain has previously underlined the importance of tenure and noted that one of the most important problems facing bureaucracy is the frequent transfer of civil servants.
This undermines service delivery because managers are often not able to stay in place long enough to institute or sustain reforms.
Previously, in one of his reports, Husain pointed out that important initiatives of the government and the policies, programmes and projects could not be implemented within the stipulated time or within the projected cost envelope because of the lack of continuity in the tenures of key civil servants.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar has taken suo motu notice of alleged misbehaviour on the part of Gilgit-Baltistan Tourism Minister Fida Hussain with the official in charge of arrivals at Islamabad airport, and directed both to appear before the court.
According to media reports, the incident involved a flight delay due to bad weather, with the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz minister pushing the official so hard that he fell.


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