Chief statistician's job: Cabinet to get security clearance before offer letter

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet has decided to obtain security clearance of Chief Statistician of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) prior to issuance of offer letter, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

On July 27, 2021, Planning Development & Special Initiatives Division briefed the Cabinet that the Section-14 of the General Statistics (Reorganization) Act 2011 empowers the Federal Government to appoint Chief Statistician of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on such terms and conditions as it may determine.

The Chief Statistician shall hold the office for a period of five years or till attaining the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. On recommendation of the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) and with approval of the Ministry of Finance, the post was converted into Special Professional Pay Scale-II (SPSS-II).

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The post of Chief Statistician was advertised on January 1, 2021 (and the Addendum on January 3, 2021) highlighting ToRs of the post for inviting applications. Out of 33 applications received, In-House Scrutiny Committee shortlisted 16 candidates for interviews by the Special Selection Board. The Board in its meeting held on April 19, 2021 examined credentials of 16 shortlisted candidates and selected seven most relevant candidates for interview.

According to sources, second meeting of the Special Selection Board was held on April 27, 2021 to conduct interviews of seven shortlisted candidates. The Board, after conducting interviews of the seven shortlisted candidates and considering critical and highly technical nature of assignment recommended a panel of following principal and alternate candidate(s) for appointment as Chief Statistician at initial stage of Special Professional Pay Scale-II (SPPS-II): Dr. Naeemuz Zafar (PhD) Principal; (ii) Dr. Muhammad Hashim Popalzai, Alternate-I; and (iii) Dr. Khalid Riaz (PhD) Alternate-II. It was also recommended that the incumbent shall be offered initially one-year assignment as probationary tenure, which shall be reviewed and assessed against the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for continuation of the prescribed tenure or otherwise.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021