KARACHI: As many as three Collectors of Pakistan Customs are set to vacate their offices on February 10, 2014 as the Establishment Division has partly approved the recommendations of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) nominating the names of five Collectors of Grade-20 for staff course that would be commencing in Lahore and Karachi.
The FBR had forwarded the names of five Collectors including Amir Ahmed, Abdul Rasheed Shaikh, Sarfaraz Warraich, Saleem Ranjha and Junaid Akram to the Establishment Division. Of them, Abdul Rasheed Shaikh, Saleem Ranjha and Junaid Akram will be joining the course while Amir Ahmed and Sarfaraz Warraich would continue to attend their current offices.
These officers had applied for the staff course despite having ‘lucrative’ postings. Usually, officers having significant as well as lucrative postings do not apply for the staff course.
An official said that these officers were well reputed honest officers and were not comfortable with the corrupt environment.
It may be mentioned here that this staff course is a pre-requisite for the promotion in Grade-21.
Meanwhile, Additional Collectors in Gade-19 from all over the country would also be attending Staff College from February 07, 2014.
Sources said that since the staff courses are commencing from February, a large scale transfers and postings in Pakistan Customs are anticipated by the end of January or early February.
It was also known that performance reviews and appraisements are going to be conducted and this time the transfers and postings would purely be on merit and corrupt officers are not likely to get offices of their choice.
It may be mentioned here that there has been much improvement in the FBR and particularly Customs in the recent past and positions are no more for sale and merit based decisions are been taken.
However, there are instances of certain postings which were due to influence, but the money has no role to play anymore in this regard.