ISLAMABAD: Af ter finding anomalies in the promotion of senior Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of ficials including incumbent chairman Dr Mohammad Irshad the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the federal government to reconsider their promotions along with an official denied a promotion to grade 22.

On Monday the court dismissed appeals in the promotions of grade 20 and grade 21 officials, and upheld an Islamabad High Court (IHC) order that asked the federal government to reconsider the promotions of over 300 officials, including secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad.

An SC bench headed by Chief Justice ofPakistan Mian Saqib Nisar set aside the decision of the High Powered Selection Board (HPSB) headed by the prime minister regarding the promotion of officials from the FBR`s Inland Revenue Service (IRS) from grades 21 and 22.

Barrister Syed Ali Zafar had filed the petition on behalf of the petitioner, grade 21 officer Raana Ahmed.

Although the counsel for the petitioner claimed the SC set aside the grade 22 promotions of of ficials working in various cadres, but the establishment secretary Syed Tahir Shahbaz said that because the petitioner challenged the promotion of three IRS officials Dr Irshad, Chaudhry Safdar and Tasnim Rehman only their cases would be sent to the HPSB for reconsideration, and that too af ter a written court order.

Chaudhry Safdar has retired after attaining the age of superannuation.

Mr Zafar argued before the court that the petitioner had an outstanding and unblemished 34-year service record, was at number six in the Seniority List and entitled to a promotion to grade 22.

However, he said the HPSB, in a meeting heldon Aug 1, 2016, wanted to promote its f avourites and in order to give them undue favours, chose to promote individuals at seniority levels 10 and 16 bypassing individuals who were 15 points ahead of them.

The petitioner`s counsel said that if good civil servants are not promoted while of ficials junior to them are, by none other than a committee headed by the prime minister, this would bring an end to the meritocracy in the civil service and such actions have already resulted in dejection and indiscipline in the government`s executive branch.

He argued that the political leadership could not be allowed to appoint favoured individuals, and pointed out that the arbitrariness and lack of seriousness was such that the FBR chairman did not attend the HPSB meeting while Ishaq Dar, a stranger, did so in order to influence the HPSB.

When asked by the court, the establishment secretary who was in the courtroom confirmed that Mr Dar had attended the meeting while the FBR chairman had been absent and had been consulted over the phone.