Pakistan’s newly appointed deputy delegate to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris is a mockery of merit by the former Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, a self-styled champion of rules and merit.
Ending the tenure of the prime minister’s office on 8th of August the ex-PM appointed a deputy permanent delegate to UNESCO who was at 10th position in written and third on the penal of three which is a clear violation of merit.
The Ministry of Education sent a summary to the ex-PM to select a person among the top 5 candidates who had qualified for a merit-based test conducted by Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), but PM Sharif selected a person who was not among the top 10 candidates shown in the official results.
Lahore University of Management Sciences was selected by the departmental procurement committee to conduct a written test on 21st May 2023 while 56 applications were received and 42 candidates were declared eligible as per merit of which 28 appeared in the test and 17 of them got the passing score.
The result was announced on May 25. Only 12 candidates qualified for the interview. Among the 12 candidates, Mansoor Ali Masood topped the written test by achieving 79.3 marks out of 100, Sadia Noori stood second with 77.4 marks whilst Lubna Ghias Saeed, selected for the slot, received only 62.85 marks, and was not even on the 10th position.
PM Sharif constituted a panel to interview the eligible candidates and Lubna Said Ghias appeared in the interview and got the third position while Mansoor and Sadia kept their first and the second position respectively.
The summary was sent to the former Prime minister on July 31 as the Departmental Selection committee conducted interviews of 12 candidates on 8th July and selected 3 officers as per merit considering their marks in the written test and interviews.
The Ministry of Education sent three names Mansoor Ali Masood serving in the Economic Affairs Ministry, Saadiya Noori in Secretary Customs FBR, and Lubna Said Ghias serving in the Economic Affairs Ministry as per the summary.
The ex-PM approved the summary day before the dissolution of the National Assembly and appointed Lubna Said Ghais for the office in sheer violation of the merit and the recommendation by the Ministry of Federal Education, and deprived the top two persons of a good opportunity.
Pakistan joined UNESCO on 14 September 1949. The deputy permanent delegate at the Embassy of Pakistan to Paris is for a 3-year tenure. The responsibilities of the deputy delegate are to create a liaison between UNESCO Secretariat, assisting and coordinating in general conferences. The Paris- based deputy delegate assists the Secretary-General in the preparation of a brief for the Pakistan delegation to UNESCO biennial general conference, International Conference on Education, Regional Conference of Education, Ministers of Education, and those responsibilities for economic planning and other international/regional meeting/conferences.
It also liaison with the permanent delegations of the member states based at UNESCO headquarters and participation in the meetings of geographical groups namely a group of 77, a group of non-aligned countries, group of Asia and Pacific Member states at UNESCO headquarters in order to project Pakistan’s point of view and safeguard the interest regarding election to Executive Board, General Conference, and intergovernmental committees, etc.
