ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declined request of the Ministry of Religious Affairs to grant diplomatic status to Director General Hajj designate, Abdul Wahab Soomro, a BS-21 erstwhile DMG officer.
Sources said that the Prime Minister on the recommendation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs approved posting of BS-21 officer Abdul Wahab Soomro as DG Hajj in Jeddah. However, there is no provision to grant diplomatic status to an officer of BS-21 in Esta Code. So now MoFA has asked Religious Affairs to get an approved upgradation of the seat of Minister from BS-20 to BS-21 from the competent authority.
Reliable sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs informed that diplomatic status to Abdul Wahab has been denied owing to the reason that rule 6.1 of Estacode provides for grant of diplomatic status to civilian officers of other ministries from grade 17 to 20 only. The highest diplomatic status under these rules is “Minister” which is grade 20. Under current rules, Designate DG cannot be granted diplomatic status and hence cannot proceed on posting.
Sources also said that the Ministry of Religious Affairs is very keen to send the designated DG and he is also very confident to get the rules “molded” for him in a couple of days. This rule has to be amended by the Establishment Division in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Foreign Affairs with final approval of the PM.
It is also of interest that the post of DG Hajj is also not yet upgraded to grade 21 and the PMO’s “blue-eyed boy” was still able to manage his notification as DG in grade 21. Now, along with the upgradation of status of Minister from grade 20 to 21, Post has to be upgraded to grade 20/21 from competent authority after notification.
Sources in the PM office said that one grade 20 officer in the panel had ongoing corruption investigations but there was a serious consideration in PMO for sending the first woman officer to serve as DG Hajj. However in the end, the PMO’s “blue-eyed” – Abdul Wahab Soomro was preferred for two reasons, one for his belonging to erstwhile DMG and the other factor was that a prestigious figure in the ministry was not ready to accept a woman as organizer of the Hajj, the sources added.
Sources also said that DMG has entrenched themselves so well and deep that no well-placed posting can go out of the family and they guard these postings with “jealousy.” All 23 DGs of Hajj and 18 out of 24 Directors posted at Jeddah in the last 76 years were from DMG, which is too glaring to deny the existence of monopoly.
Why was it so that out of eleven officers of various occupational groups, all three belonging to DMG reached the top and landed in the panel sent to PM and finally got selected for the prized slots.
“Does it exhibit that officers from other services are incompetent and they are always outshined by DMG officers or it reflects systematic hold of DMG group, Surely the reason is in the later part of the sentence”, sources added.
It is a commonly observed practice that in all competitive exams whether they are for Trade & Investment Officers by Ministry of Commerce, Community Welfare Officers by Ministry of Overseas Pakistani or Director Hajj by Ministry of Religious affairs & interfaith harmony, Officers of DMG have to just pass the written exam to get their aspired seats. However, officers from other services struggle to get their due right.
In all of this, first, they are supported by the composition of Superior Selection Boards which conducts interviews after written exams. On one hundred percent occasions these boards are dominated by senior most officers of DMG.
Five out of seven members of the panel were from DMG in the composition of the last SSB of Trade & Investment Officers. Similarly, in SSB for the interview of Director Hajj 4 out of 5 members were from DMG. These panels who are dominated by DMG officers carry a whiff of superiority for members of their own clan.
After the nomination panel is sent to the PM Office through Establishment Division where again decision is prompted by DMG Officers, who are naturally possessed by framing bias for their fellow colleagues. This makes the nexus more visible.
Sources said that there is a need to take away this sense of entitlement, just because of being from a certain occupational group and ensure merit in every single selection by breaking the nexus, if a country has to prosper.
Everyone deserves to be treated equally and fairly. We, for sure, need to mend our ways, sources added.
‘Pakistan Today; On March 11, 2023 reported that Erstwhile DMG Officers are likely to capture the prized slots of DG as well as Director Hajj which deal with key budgetary allocations worth billions of rupees.
Only five days later, a DMG officer was notified as Director Hajj while on March 22, 2023, slot of DG Hajj was also allotted to a DMG officer to confirm merit killing bias favouring the group.
An official of the Ministry of Religious Affairs claimed that the DG Hajj position has already been upgraded to BS-21 with the approval of the Prime Minister. The Ministry of Religious has written a letter to the Finance division for upgradation of status of Minister and after the approval they will inform the MoFA also.
On the other hand, sources in the Finance Division informed that the case of upgradation of post of DG Hajj from 20 to 20/21 was never taken up with them and the fate of upgradation of status of minister will be informed after consideration.
