'Influential' candidates as 'trade officers': C&TS officers decide to move Supreme Court
TAHIR AMIN
ISLAMABAD (September 04 2009): Sensing that the Prime Minister's Secretariat is bent upon accommodating some 'influential' candidates for the newly created posts of trade officers at Santiago (Chile), Prague (Czech Republic), Port Louis (Mauritius) and Brussels (Belgium), the officers of Commerce and Trade Service (C&TS) have decided to approach the Supreme Court to seek justice in the matter.

Hectic consultations are underway between the officers of Commerce and Trade Service and Foreign Service of Pakistan these days, it is learnt by Business Recorder. It may be recalled that officers of Foreign Service had lodged a case in the Islamabad High Court, now defunct, seeking reversal of the posting of Jahanzeb Khan as Ambassador to France.

The officers of Commerce and Trade Service have constituted a core team to elicit information from the officers of Foreign Service of Pakistan on their writ petition. A couple of lawyers have been approached on the subject. It has also been decided that a writ petition would immediately be filed once the Prime Minister's Secretariat gives nod to the Ministry of Commerce for the posting of these private sector candidates.

Sources revealed that the Prime Minister's Secretariat, during the second week of May 2009, had directed the Ministry of Commerce to give preference to three private sector candidates namely, Ayesha Saeed, Shahryar Talpur and Yasir Ishaque Lashari against the newly created posts. In addition, it was also directed that Fawad Shah should be selected against the fourth seat.

To accommodate these candidates the Ministry of Commerce required to revise the selection procedure. As per the revised selection procedure, the condition of the written test by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) was waived and the Ministry of Commerce itself was authorised to conduct the written test.

The overall performance of these private sector candidates was 'ordinary' by all standards in the tests conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development (PITAD), a subsidiary of MoC, a senior official maintained on the condition of anonymity. Ayesha Saeed, (Punjab) secured 72 marks out of 100, while other candidates like Shahryar Talpur (Sindh) got 55, Yasir Ishaque Lashari (Sindh) 51, Mumtaz Khan Marwat secured 50 and Nawaz Jamil (Sindh, R) got 31 marks.

It is relevant to note that 30 public sector candidates had secured more than 70 percent marks in the written test conducted by Lums. As per policy only those securing more than 60 percent marks qualify for interviews, however, as the Ministry of Commerce was under pressure from the PM Secretariat it invited a candidate securing 31 marks for the interview.