Selection board meets today to decide top promotions

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is going to chair today a meeting of a high-powered selection board that will decide about the promotion of 52 bureaucrats to grade-22. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will also attend the meeting.

The high-powered selection board meeting is taking place after a gap of nearly one and a half years.

According to reliable sources, Bilawal has been made a member of the board upon his request and will be attending for the first time. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Prime Minister’s Secretary Asad Rehman Gilani and the cabinet division secretary will also be present.

During the discussion about his promotion, Gilani will excuse himself from the meeting. The board has allocated three and a half hours for the session but if the review of all officers is not completed in one day, another meeting will be held within a day or two.

Sources said that more than 150 officers will be considered for promotions to 52 positions.

These include 19 positions in the Pakistan Administrative Service; 8 positions in the Police Service of Pakistan; 5 in the Secretariat Group; 8 in the Foreign Service; 2 in Audit and Accounts Group; and 1 each in information and postal groups.