Govt to Hire Technical Advisors for Ministers

The federal government has decided to recruit Technical Advisors in 17 ministries or divisions to assist the federal ministers.

Sources told ProPakistani that the Establishment Division has vetted the Term of References of more than a dozen ministries for the hiring of Technical Advisors (TA) to assist the federal ministers.

The TAs will be recruited to the ministries of Finance, Science and Technology, Federal Education and Professional Training, National Food Security and Research, Maritimes Affairs, Industries and Production, Information Technology and Telecommunication, Information and Broadcasting, Climate Change, National Health Services, Commerce, Regulation and Coordination, the Energy (petroleum) Division, the Power Division, Water Resources, the Establishment Division, the Aviation Division, and the Textile Division.

Sources said that the Prime Minister approved the proposal in a summary moved by the Establishment Division, following which this process was initiated.

They added that there is an established system of soliciting policy advice from specialists at the ministerial level besides the support from the civil service globally.

The incumbent PTI government has made increased use of Task Forces comprising experts from the private sector, academia, practitioners, and retired employees. The federal Cabinet approved a number of recommendations for the Task Force in recent months.

Some of the actions will require technical and domain-based knowledge besides expertise, and the ministers in-charge will need high-level technical advisory support to examine the proposals submitted by the ministries to assess the feasibility of the recommendations of the Task Forces to make informed decisions, as noted by the sources.

Therefore, there was a need for TAs to assist the ministers in these examinations in their offices.