ISLAMABAD: To beat the heat generated by the Supreme Court axe on 54 top civil servants, who were handpicked by the prime minister, the government is now formulating a new set of rules that would permit any officer to be promoted from grade 20 to 22 in just a single day.

At least 21 of the 54 demoted federal secretaries will become ineligible to be considered for promotions to BS-22 if the government revives the rescinded 1998 rules as directed by the apex court in its decision, as they have not served the minimum period of three years in BS-21.

However, the new set of rules under consideration, would be different from 1998, and now a government servant could even be promoted from BS-20 to BS-21 and then from BS-21 to BS-22 in just one day.

During the hearing of the promotion case of 54 federal secretaries, it was the Supreme Court that had directed the government to formulate rules so that the top level promotions could be streamlined.

The BS-22 promotion rules, rescinded by the Nawaz Sharif government in 1998, expected from a BS-21 officer to have earned at least three “very good” ACRs to become eligible to be considered for promotion to BS-22 by a high powered selection board.

But now the draft rules for BS-22 promotions prepared by the establishment division in consultation with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and presently under consideration of the law ministry, do not specify a minimum length of service in BS-21 to set the eligibility of BS-21 officers for promotion to BS-22.

These draft rules merely set a minimum of five years of service in BS-20 and BS-21 for an officer to be considered for promotion as a federal secretary. These rules, if approved, would suit those 21 demoted secretaries, who even as of today have not completed three years in BS-21.

Sources said that fixing five years of minimum but joint length of service in BS-20 and BS-21 would allow the chief executive to promote his favourites.

A few demoted secretaries were promoted to BS-22 within a few months of their promotion to BS-21 but the following demoted officers are ineligible even to be considered for BS-22 promotion if the 1998 promotion rules are revived and stay unchanged.

They include principal secretary to the Prime Minister Nargis Sethi, who was promoted to BS-21 on Aug 26, 2008; Ahmad Bakhsh Lehri, promoted to BS-21 on 26-06-2008; Ghulam Ali Shah, 26-06-2008; Javed Mahmood, 02-01-2008; Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, 02-01-2008; Sami Saeed, 02-01-2008; Sohail Ahmad, 02-01-2008; Sayyed Jawed Ali Shah Bukhari, 29-05-2009; Azhar Ali Farooqui, 30-04-2008; Ghulam Muhammad Rind, 23-05-2009; Ghulam Rasool Ahpan, 28-02-2009; Ahmad Mahmood Zahid, 18-12-2007; Abdul Shafiq, 16-05-2009; Neelam S Ali, 29-12-2007; Khalid Idrees, 18-12-2007; Inamullah Khan, 18-12-2007; Taweed Akhtar, 17-11-2007; Agha Sarwar Qazilbash, 19-12-2007 and Mansoor Suhail, 15-05-2009.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court asked the government, “The Chief Executive/competent authority may consider the cases of all the candidates holding the posts of BS-21 in view of observations, made herein above, and also seek guidance from the rules framed which now have been rescinded. It would be in the public interest as well as for sake of fairness and justness if the rules rescinded on 4th April, 1998 are re-enacted by the competent authority with any changes, modifications as deemed fit under the circumstances.”

Although the apex court has given the government room to make changes in the 1998 rules but the kind of changes it is right now considering, it is feared, would open new avenues for discriminatory and unjust promotions.

Meanwhile, the Establishment Division, Thursday formally notified the demotion of all the 54 officers, who were promoted in September last year but could not pass the judicial scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Now all the 54 officers stand reverted to BS-21, however, they continue to hold the BS-22 posts, which is permissible under the rules.