ISLAMABAD: The high minister has officially assigned the country’s premier asset agency,Inter-Services Intelligence( ISI), with the webbing of civil retainers before their induction, movables and bulletins, as well as elevations.
In doing so, the government has given legal cover to a practice that had formerly been in place, but hadn’t been formalised as part of protocol.
According to the Establishment Division announcement “ In exercise of powers conferred bysub-section 1 of section 25 of the Civil retainers Act 1973( …) read with announcement No. SRO 120( 1)/ 1998( …) the Prime Minister is pleased to notify Directorate GeneralInter-Services Intelligence( ISI)
as( the) Special Vetting Agency( SVA) for verification and webbing of all Public Office Holders( Officers order) … ”.
The quoted laws — i.e.sub-section 1 of section 25 of the Civil retainers Act as well as SRO 120 — empower the high minister to amend or make rules for the civil bureaucracy. The direction to notify the ISI as SVA had been issued from the office of the Prime Minister on May 06, 2022.
A elderly functionary from the Establishment Division told Dawn on the condition of obscurity that the ISI and the Intelligence Bureau( IB) both shoot their reports about civil retainers before the ultimate are posted on important assignments.
Reports are especially transferred to the Central Selection Board( CSB) at the time of creation of functionaries. The practice has continued indeed though superior courts had, in a many cases in the history, discarded similar intelligence reports while noting that there was no legal provision in the Civil retainers Act that commanded agency webbing of civil retainers.
According to the functionary, notwithstanding the announcement, the IB will continue to shoot its reports as per routine. The functionary said that since the government has now given legal effect to reports issued by the ISI, these could hereafter be used in courts as a valid legal document.
still, a former Establishment Division clerk dissented. He noted that though the high minister has the power to amend or make rules for the bureaucracy, it would have been better if the Establishment Division would have issued a Statutory Regulatory Order( SRO) to amend the movables, elevations and Transfer( APT) Rules governing the civil bureaucracy if it wanted to give the ISI formal charge of the vetting process.
“ Unless the rules are amended, a bare announcement won’t legitimise the agency’s report and it can not be used as a valid document during judicial scrutiny, ” he said.
The functionary said they didn’t believe that vetting by the ISI is needed in the original appointment of civil retainers through the Federal Public Service Commission( FPSC). He added that the agency may rather be asked to screen those officers instated from the fortified forces into the civil bureaucracy.
It’s worth noting that concurrence from intelligence agencies isn’t only an integral part of the creation process for civil retainers, it also plays a crucial part in the appointment of judges to the superior bar. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan, headed by the principal justice, considers intelligence reports at the time of the evidence and elevation of a Supreme Court judge.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb didn’t speak on the development, while an E
