source : The news 16/11/2006


FPSC bypassed in changing cadre of CSS officer



By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Almost seven years after serving in the Customs Group, the son of an ex-cop is now all set to join the Police Service of Pakistan, thanks to Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

Sources said the former prime minister, in total disregard of merit and the rule of law and without consulting the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), had directed the Establishment Division in 2004 to take necessary action on the application of Syed Junaid Arshad, seeking his induction into the PSP. There is no such rule, which allows CSS officers to change a service/group without going through the civil service competition but Jamali was made to follow some “bad precedents” set in the past, particularly during Benazir Bhutto’s second term.

Different groups/services of the Central Superior Services are allocated to the successful candidates of the CSS competition by the FPSC on the basis of overall merit and regional/provincial quota.

Arshad in his plea to the then prime minister had said that his father and grandfather had served the police, which he is also desirous of serving. Arshad had joined the Customs Group of the Central Superior Services in 2000 on the basis of his performance in the CSS competition.

The Shaukat Aziz government was not interested in changing the occupational group of Syed Junaid Arshad, whose father Syed Arshad Hussain is a retired cop. The Shaukat government found vagueness in Jamali’s order so it was not interested to oblige the officer. Arshad, however, took the government to the Lahore High Court, which decided in his favour. The government approached the Supreme Court in an appeal but there too it lost the case.

Some senior bosses of the Federal Public Service Commission, who were extremely upset with the former prime minister’s orders, told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that the case has not been properly pleaded in the courts. These sources say that the government should have got a review petition before the Supreme Court. Following the Supreme Court verdict, the government has reportedly issued an offer letter to Junaid Arshad inviting him to join the Police Service of Pakistan that is today the top choice of the CSS competitors.

The FPSC sources lament that the former prime minister never consulted the commission before passing his order for the reallocation of the PSP to an officer who otherwise did not deserve it. During Benazir Bhutto’s second term, a few sons and sons-in-law of bigwigs, including those of the then chief minister Sindh Abdullah Shah, the then information minister Khalid Ahmed Kharal, former secretary local government Maqsood Sheikh etc were reallocated better services/groups against their actual allocation.

The reallocations of the services/groups always generated controversy not only because it undermined the CSS system but also owing to the fact that the prime minister does not have any authority under the law to change the services/groups of the CSS competitors. The sources said that the point that needed to be contested before the courts was that whether the chief executive could reallocate service/group to any CSS officer in disregard of the CSS merit. According to a member of sources in the FPSC, the commission might shortly take up the issue with the Presidency.