DMG Officers likely to ‘capture’ key slots of DG, Director Hajj Operations

ISLAMABAD: The District Management Group (DMG) officers are likely to “capture the prize slots of Director General as well as Director Hajj Operations which deal with key budgetary allocations worth billions of rupees”.

Well placed sources in the ministry have divulged that five officers had passed the written test for the DG Hajj position. Those who passed the exam included Saima Saba (PAAS), Hassan Masood (PAAS), Nadeem Abro (DMG/PAS), Nazar Muhammad Ranjha (PAAS) and Wahab Soomro (DMG/PAS) in the merit list.

Similarly, six officers had passed the examination for the slot of Director Hajj operations. Those who passed the exam included Fahim Afridi (DMG/PAS), Tariq Sipra (Railways), Amina Batool (IRS), Alif Jan (PAAS), Samiullah Soomro (Police) and Nasir Aziz (OMG) in order of merit.

Overall, eleven officers passed the written exam out of which four officers were from PA&AS, three from DMG/PAS and one each from Railways, IRS, Police and OMG groups.

Sources said that a merit killing bias has crept in and swept the whole merit when the DMG/PAS officers dominated the interview panel and interviewed those who had qualified in the written examination for the key positions.

The interview panel included Minister Religious Affairs Mufti Abdul Shakoor, Additional Secretary (Incharge) Religious Affairs Aftab Durrani (DMG/PAS), Shakeel Mangnejo, AS  PMO DMG/(PAS), Aizar Dar, AS Cabinet (DMG/PAS), Secretary Establishment Inamullah Dharejo (DMG/PAS) and AS Foreign affairs (FSP) Cirus Qazi.

After the interview, all the three officers of DMG/PAS who passed the written examination for both positions were brought to the top positions i.e. 1st & 2nd positions of DG Hajj and 1st position of Director Hajj Operations.

Ironically, 23 DGs and 24 directors of Hajj have so far been appointed in Jeddah in the last 76 years out of which all 23 DGS and 18 Directors were from erstwhile DMG, providing an evidence of a strong monopoly and firm hold of the erstwhile DMG officers on these positions.

The sources said that a corruption case was also pending before an investigation agency against one of the DMG officers nominated in the panel.

Another officer of DMG was nominated in the panel despite the fact that the seat of DG Hajj was not yet upgraded to floating 20/21 as in previous summary moved by the Ministry of Religious Affairs which recommended the PM office to initiate up gradation of DG Hajj (BS-20) position to BS 20/21 so that a senior and experienced officer could be assigned for this very challenging task. The sources said the PM office only directed Ministry of Religious Affairs to initiate the process which they never did, the sources added.

Interestingly, one of the recommended candidates for DG Hajj position is a batch-mate of Shakeel Mangnejo, one of the members of the interview panel.

The sources said that a highly active person for director hajj is required who can effectively meet the job requirements, however, the sources claim that the nominee for the Director slot was an obese person.

The sources said that Ministry of Religious Affairs has proposed the PM office the names of three officers including Nadeem Abro (DMG/PAS), Wahaab Soomro (DMG/PAS) and Saima Saba (PA&AS) for DG Hajj slot while three officers including Fahim Afridi (DMG/PAS), Nasir Aziz (OMG) and Tariq Sipra (PSP) have been proposed for the slot of Director Hajj Operations.

The sources said that there were chances that the government might recommend DMG officers for both the slots.

Earlier, the PM office had extended, on the request of ministry of  Religious Affairs, the tenure of posting of previous DG Hajj Abrar Ahmed Mirza and Sajid Mazoor Asadi as the Ministry of Religious Affairs was not willing to consider any of the two Non-DMG candidates who passed written exam of DG Hajj conducted in September 2022,  whereas no candidate in the last short listing process could meet the required threshold of 60% marks for the Director Hajj position.

According to Ministry of RA&IH, DG Hajj Jeddah is a position of very sensitive nature requiring multi-faceted experiences like management of huge financial budget worth  billions, dealing with large number of Hajjaj running in thousands, arranging numerous aspects for pilgrims including but not limited to accommodation, transport, food and so forth, owing to which they needed to consider upgradation of the post.

However, some sources said that no change in the sensitivity of the post occurred during September 22 (First circulation of post)  and December 22 (second circulation of post) which necessitated up gradation and it was only done to allow a favorite grade 21 officer to become part of the process and barricade another grade 20 officers from getting selected.

A senior official of Ministry of Religious Affair Umar Butt on the query of this scribe told that a grade 21 officer Sajid Yosafani had been working as DG Hajj position so ministry was not favoring some specific candidate for this slot.

He also said that there were few candidates in the first phase so the Ministry of Religious Affairs has widened the panel by adding more candidates in the panel and any senior officer will surely improve the hajj operation due to his experience.

However, the sources said that Yousafani was sent as a grade 20 officer, however, due to his promotion during his posting at Jeddah, this post was temporarily upgraded to allow him actualization of his promotion as the post of DG Hajj is of BS-20 even today.

It is pertinent to note that Every year Hujjaj are seen crying over unfair use of their money and complaining about services they had received and merit killing is a major reason behind poor management of Hajj arrangements and misuse of public money.

Sources said that the PM should take a notice and ensure merit in the best interest of Hujjaj who take an arduous journey to perform a very sacred duty so that their comfort and value for their money can be ensured.