ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Information Minister Parvez Rashid has stopped officials appointed for foreign missions by the previous government in its last days from proceeding abroad, sources said here yesterday.
Sources say he took the decision in the light of the litigation started by a number of information officers contending that the appointments were made in violation of government rules.
During the hearing of the case on June 6, Chief Justice Anwar Kasi of the Islamabad High Court observed that whatever has been done was expected to be rectified by the new government.
However, when contacted, the principal information officer of the government said that his office had received no official directive to the effect from the information minister’s office. A few officers are known to have already left for their assigned stations.
A close aide of the minister, meanwhile said two options were being discussed to address the issue: Either re-do the entire selection process or remove the anomalies pointed out by the litigant officers. “The information minister will decide which way to go. At the moment he is going through the file,” said the aide, who did not wish to be identified.
One of the key objections raised by the litigants concerned the selection of Grade 20 officers for the posts in New York, Brussels, and Paris when they were meant for Grade 19 officers.
One of them noted that the Finance Division upgraded the posts at the recommendation of the information ministry just days before the newly elected government took charge last week. Officers whose selection has been questioned included Masood Anwar of Grade 20 who has been posted as press counsellor in New York when he had returned after serving the same post in Paris on April 29, 2010. According to the ministry?s rules, he could only be considered for a new foreign posting after April 29, 2013, after having served at home for three years.
Dr Najeeb Ahmed has got the post of press counsellor in Washington DC, another attractive location. He was working as a director in the office of former information minister Qamar Kaira and considered to be close to him. He last served in Cairo and his mandatory qualifying period will end in October 2013.
Shafqat Abbas, who was working with Kaira as personal staff officer, has been posted in Germany, the position many in the ministry aspire for. Although he fulfills the criterion for the posting, several officials senior to him have been ignored in the process of selection. Shafqat Jalil, who has been posted as press minister in London, has worked as press secretary with the outgoing premier Pervez Ashraf. He last served as press counsellor in New York and his mandatory period to serve in the country for three years was to end on March 13, 2013.
But just a week before that date he was interviewed on March 5 and selected for the post.
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