Sir: There are several statutory bodies operating in Pakistan nowadays. These statutory bodies are established by government(s) in the country and charged with onerous responsibility – with a specific mission and mandate – in different domains and disciplines. These bodies become body corporate in their status. These bodies are entities shaped by an Act of Parliament or provincial assemblies. These bodies have their own regulatory policies. They frame their own rules and regulations, laws and bylaws for internal governance, among others.
The Board of Management or Board of Governance becomes the principal executive body of these statutory bodies. This high powered Board is headed by a chairman and is comprised of a number of members that are required by the Act/statutes to meet a certain number of times each year to decide various matters pertaining to the internal governance, framing of employees service rules, promotion of those officers who remain in the same grade even after the passage of more than twelve to fifteen years in the same grade in which they were recruited, inter alia,
If the meetings of these statutory bodies are not convened well in time as required by the statutes, then, it is only and only the regular employees who bear the brunt, including their career progression, not the repeated rehired hired lot who enjoy both heft pension, handsome package and other perks and privileges. Above all, the working of these statutory bodies if adversely affected when these organization have failed to frame the much–desired “Employees Service Rules “ even after the passage of more than two decades to the existence of those organizations. It is apt to quote here Martin Luther King Jr. who once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
However, transparency, accountability and effectiveness demands that the meetings of these statutory bodies may be convened for effective working as required by the Act/ statues.
HASHIM ABRO
Islamabad