Appointing A Chief Secretary.

The province of Punjab has been facing political turmoil for a few months, creating friction between the political chief executive and the head of the bureaucratic executive. Consequently, the incumbent chief secretary of Punjab wrote an official letter to the Establishment Division to withdraw his services from the province of Punjab. The letter of withdrawal put the government of Punjab in an awkward position in a knee-jerk reaction and sent a proposal to the Establishment division containing a panel of officers to appoint the chief secretary. The proposal of the Punjab government is still in limbo but the marriage of inconvenience between parties remains solidly consumable.

The existing mode of appointment of the chief secretary is an administrative riddle. It comprises a consultative process between the prime minister and chief minister or their authorised persons. This arrangement purely depends upon an agreement supposedly reached between federation and provinces in the early part of independence. This agreement is the foundation of creating the civil service of Pakistan CSP and subsequent composition and cadre rules in 1954. Section 15(4) of the ibid agreement governs the process of appointing a chief secretary. The ibid section of the agreement lays down the process of appointing a chief secretary where due consideration shall be given to the proposal of the provincial government. However, the final decision to appoint a chief secretary shall be the discretionary power of the federal government. Hence, undoubtedly, the federal government manoeuvres the mode of appointment to her advantage on a post purely connected with the affairs of a province.

However, this mode of appointment depending merely upon an agreement requires serious legal and constitutional interrogation. Does the so-called agreement correspond to the provisions of the existing scheme of the constitution? Inherently, the 18th amendment of the constitution has separated the legislative, executive, and financial authority of the federation and provinces thus making the present mode of appointment a constitutional challenge to the 18th amendment. How can the federal government extend executive authority on a provincial post bearing the provincial legislative, executive and financial authority?

Historically, the office of chief secretary was established in colonial India to lead the administration in a province in absence of an empowered political executive. Therefore, it...

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