On Thursday, a parliamentary committee was informed that a planned revision to the civil service rules might affect as many as 20,000 government officials.
The issue was raised in the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat during a hearing on Senator Afnan Ullah Khan’s ‘The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021’ on January 17, 2022.
The proposed amendment prohibits civil workers from having dual citizenship and establishes a deadline for dual national civil servants to abandon their foreign citizenship.
Ali Mohammad Khan, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, believes that government employees should not have dual nationality while on the job since one individual cannot be loyal to two countries at the same time.
According to a recent report on multiple nationality given to the Supreme Court, more than 22,000 prominent government officials are dual nationals. According to the report, the police and bureaucracy employ 11,000 officers.
According to the research, dual nationality officers are currently employed in the interior division, power division, aviation division, finance division, petroleum, commerce ministry, establishment division, information ministry, railway, and other departments.
Although Establishment Secretary Afzal Latif acknowledged that the ban would affect a considerable number of civil officials, he insisted that the Ministry of Interior’s opinion on the modification be sought.
Committee Chairman Rana Maqbool Ahmad, on the other hand, asked the cabinet division and interior secretaries to attend the next meeting to express their views on the change under consideration.
Senator Dilawar Khan, meanwhile, asked the Establishment Division to submit explanations for the supersession of officials during a debate of the Central Selection Board’s recent decisions.
Minister Ali Mohammad Khan informed the committee that the subject was pending in the Lahore High Court and could not be discussed in committee according to the regulations. Chairman Rana Maqbool Ahmad, on the other hand, indicated there was no harm in submitting a report.
The chairman instructed the Establishment Division secretary to deliver a report at the next meeting, which would be held in secret due to the classified nature of the information at hand.
Senator Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur emphasised at the meeting that the Cabinet Division should submit a scorecard of officers who have been superseded. “It is Prime Minister Imran Khan’s top objective to improve tax collection, and the irony is that Federal Board of Revenue personnel are currently awaiting promotion in the high court,” she added.
