What could be discouraging for any profession, over 70% of officers of Pakistan’s Information Service Group are expected to retire at the mid pay grade of 19 despite spending over three decades in service, underscoring the urgent need to review the service structure, reveals an internal official analysis.

Due to the narrow pyramid at the top, all current grade-17 and grade-18 officers of the Information Service Group will never reach grade 20 unless the civil service structure is reviewed, according to an assessment prepared by the Ministry of Information for the purpose of career progression of its backbone – the officers.

The situation has become particularly dire in the face of new challenges, including the growing need to build a credible state narrative to counter fake narratives, mostly peddled through unregulated social media.

Despite a normal career ladder stretching across six pay scales, from grade 17 to the highest scale of 22, the careers of three out of four civil servants end at the mid-stage due to structural bottlenecks that block promotions beyond grade 19 in most cases, the analysis showed.

Not a single one of the 135 officers currently serving in basic pay scale 17 is expected to reach even the medium ladder of grade 20 despite serving well over three decades in the service, according to the details. In addition, around 74 officers currently in grade 18 are also likely to retire in grade 19 after more than 30 years of service.

More than 50 officers of grade 19 may reach grade 20 but are expected to retire at that level without any chance of promotion to the next basic pay scale. “Careers are ending earlier than the official service rules suggest,” said a Ministry of Information official.

The Information Service Group is also facing discrimination compared to other service groups. To address similar issues in more powerful groups, the government has created posts of special secretaries in certain ministries to expand the pyramid at the top.

Last month, the government constituted a career progression committee to comprehensively review promotion bottlenecks arising from cadre strength, post distribution and structural imbalances, and to recommend legally sustainable measures to rectify the situation. Press Information Officer Mobashir Hasan is heading the 12-member committee, which has been given three months to submit its recommendations.

During the first meeting of the committee held last week, it was proposed to expand the pyramid at the top rather than freezing new inductions into the group. It was discussed that the heads of the Press Information Department, External Publicity Wing and Digital Communication Department should be upgraded to grade 22 instead of grade 21.

The cadre progression committee also discussed the creation of Strategic Communication Cells in 15 ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Revenue, Election Commission of Pakistan and Ministry of Interior, with up to five sanctioned positions each, as part of efforts to address communication gaps and expand the pyramid It was observed that the existing cadre strength was insufficient to cater to the federal government’s publicity and narrative-building needs. Cadre expansion was seen as the most viable option to meet the growing demand for government communication while also addressing promotion-related issues.

However, the committee underscored that any cadre expansion should be strictly need-based and should not contradict the government’s policy of not further expanding the size of the civil service.

Despite austerity measures, the government has in the recent past opened new departments and procured vehicles beyond entitlements, measures considered more costly than adding a few positions in the information group. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also constituted a committee for civil service reforms, but no tangible results have so far been achieved.

The government is struggling to implement a comprehensive set of civil service reforms, as the process is often exploited by powerful service groups. As a result, there is a growing tendency among officers of other services to either leave the public sector or attempt to join dominant groups such as the Pakistan Administrative Service or the Foreign Service.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also included civil service reform in its proposed measures to improve governance and mitigate corruption. However, the IMF has largely focused on asset declarations of civil servants, while overlooking service delivery issues that could be addressed by resolving genuine career progression problems.

Civil service reform “operationalises public asset declaration and risk-based verification for senior civil servants through legal amendments, digital systems and coordinated verification mechanisms,” according to the IMF’s governance report. It added that limited transparency and verification of asset declarations increase the risks of undetected illicit enrichment, conflicts of interest, policy capture and rent-seeking, while eroding public trust and investor confidence, according to the IMF report.

It has been observed that the Information Service Group has faced persistent promotion-related challenges due to a mismatch between cadre strength and the availability of promotional posts, particularly at mid-career levels of basic pay scales 19 and 20. The situation has been exacerbated by large inductions in certain batches, blocking promotions beyond grades 19 and 20.

As a result, dozens of officers remain stuck in their existing grades due to a lack of vacancies in higher pay scales, adversely affecting morale and efficiency within the Information Service Group.