The government is considering a proposal to retire senior
officers in BS-20 and 21 at the age of 55 instead of the
standard 60 if they are not fit for promotion, it is learnt.
Sources said the proposal still being
chewed on by government authorities suggests the premature
retirement at the age of 55 as a general rule for the
superseded officers in BS-20 and BS-21.
The proposal would take the final shape
for implementation only once it is approved by the prime
minister and possibly by the cabinet, as it would require
an amendment in the existing statute on civil service.
It is being considered to fix 55 years as superannuation
age for twice-superseded BS-20 officers and once-superseded
BS-21 officers.
This early retirement age of superseded
officers of BS-20&21, it is believed, would have two
foreseen advantages. First, it would improve the quality
of senior serving bureaucrats because only the better
lot would be allowed to stay in the government service
for a longer period.
Second, the retirement of superseded officer
at the age of 55 would better the promotion prospects
of mid-career and junior officers.
Presently the age of superannuation is
60 for all civil servants. However through an amendment
made in the civil servants act during General Musharraf
tenure as country’s chief executive, the government
got the authority to prematurely retire an officer who
had served for at least 20 years.
The said amendment was brought to rid
the civil bureaucracy of what was termed as "dead-wood".
However, the idea did not produce the required results
as the rule was to be applied on selected officers in
the discretion of the competent authority and following
the recommendation of a review committee.
Under the law review committees at different
levels were to be set-up to recommend premature retirement
of inefficient and corrupt officers but nothing much could
be achieved despite the repeated calls from the top leadership
to clean the bureaucracy from deadwood.
A high-powered services review committee
was established under the secretary cabinet during mid-2000
to recommend the early retirement of inefficient officers
in BS 20 and above. However, so far it has met only for
once and advised the removal of merely three senior bureaucrats.
Similar committees were constituted in
each ministry/division/department etc to review the cases
of employees from BS 1 to 19. These committees have so
far retired almost 550 officials, the vast majority of
whom belongs to low scales- BS 1-16.
Under the law four categories of officers
could be considered for early retirement. These categories
include those officials who have already been imposed
two or more penalties under E&D rules; who’s
overall grading of ACRs is average or have earned adverse
reports; who have been twice superseded; who have the
reputation of being corrupt or possessing wealth/property
disproportionate to their known sources of income. Frequent
unauthorised absence from duty can also be the reason
for early retirement.
It is believed since the present legal
provision on early retirement is purely an option/discretion
instead of a general rule to be applied across the board
on all officers falling in selected categories so it did
not work well.
Under different laws, including the Removal
from Service Ordinance issued in 2000, the military regime
had dismissed, removed or compulsorily retired over 3,000
federal civil servants but again the vast majority belonged
to the low scales. Such officers in BS 20 and above are
said to be a little over two dozens.
The bureaucracy was generally blamed of
blatant corruption and inefficiency by all and sundry,
including the military regime but the authorities could
not dismiss many on corruption charges.
