PM nominates Bilawal, Khawaja Asif for bureaucrats’ promotion panel
HPSB decides on appointments and promotions from Grade-21 to 22.
Over 40 posts of Grade-22 are vacant due delay in panel’s meeting.
Delay attributed to PPP’s demand to be made part of process.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has nominated Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif for the High-Powered Selection Board (HPSB) empowered to promote federal bureaucrats from Grade-21 to 22, The News reported on Friday.
The PM who chairs the meeting of HPSB, has the power to make Minister Establishment Division or a member of the parliament a member of the Board.
The body also includes Secretary Cabinet Division, Secretary Establishment Division, Principal Secretary to PM and Secretary of the concerned ministry.
Since the current Secretary to PM, Asadur Rehman Gilani, is a Grade-21 officer and his own promotion case will be considered, he will not attend the meeting.
The High-Powered Selection Board decides on appointments and promotions from Grade-21 to 22. More than 40 posts of Grade-22 are vacant as there has been no meeting of HPSB since long. The last meeting of the board was held in March 2023.
Sources say that the HPSB meeting will be convened very soon.
The reason for the delay in calling the meeting was that the PPP had demanded its leadership be included in the process of promotions in bureaucracy as an alliance party.
Bilawal’s inclusion also comes against the backdrop of his criticism of the PM Shehbaz-led government for making “unilateral decisions”.
“The government is making decisions as if it has a two-thirds majority…policies may prove prudent if they consult with allies,” the PPP chairman said while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad on Thursday.
“When unilateral decisions are made, it becomes difficult to implement them,” he remarked, stressing the need for consensus among political stakeholders.
This wasn’t the first time the former foreign minister took a jibe at the federal government as in December he had expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to meet the promises made to his party, saying the government does not have the mandate to make unilateral decisions.