Names of two PSC members finalised

PESHAWAR, April 30: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to appoint two new members of provincial Public Service Commission (PSC) after premature expiry of tenure of its chairman and six members. "Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has approved induction of Sahibzada Mohammad Khalid and Dr Fazal-i-Ahmad as members into the PSC in line with the recommendations of a search committee headed by chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa," official sources told Dawn. Sahibzada Mohammad Khalid, a grade 22 officer, is currently serving as chairman of Pakistan Tobacco Board. He had applied for early retirement and is in transitional phase, as according to sources "the moment the provincial government issues his notification to PSC, he will be considered out of active civil service." Likewise, Dr Fazal, a senior pathologist, had served as principal of Khyber Medical College apart from remaining on the faculty for a long time before getting retired a few years ago. The provincial government in Oct last year had constituted the search committee under chief secretary with secretaries of higher education, elementary and secondary education and establishment as its members. Moreover, a retired civil servant, a vice-chancellor of a public university and an MPA nominated by the chief minister are also members of the committee. Sources said that committee had short listed a panel of six prospective members of PSC. The panel was submitted to the chief minister, the competent authority for their appointment, for approval, they added. Of these six, mostly retired civil servants, the chief minister approved induction of Mr Khalid and Dr Ahmad. As per the procedure, the chief minister had sent an advice to the governor, who had also awarded his assent to the proposal. The establishment department will now issue a notification of their appointment the moment, existing chairman and six members get completed their tenure, which has now been trimmed from five to three years. The provincial assembly had adopted on Friday a bill amending the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission Ordinance 1978, enabling the government to cut short the tenure of the chairman and members of PSC. As a result of the amendment, which is likely to come into force within 10 days, the incumbent chairman Gulzar Khan and members Mian Sahib Jan, Brig (retired) Manzoor Iqbal Bangash, Jamshed Ali Khan, Shala Khan Afridi, Mohammad Younas Marwat and Col (retired) Alamzeb were going to lose their jobs. Except Mr Alamzeb, the chairman and the five members had already served for three to five years against their actual tenure of five years. Mr Alamzeb, who was supposed to serve till 2015, would lose the job on the basis of age because he had crossed the required limit of 65 years for the post, sources said. The establishment department will issue notification of the fresh two appointments, the moment governor signs the bill adopted by the provincial assembly after which it will become a law.