FACULTY

MEMBER:

MUHAMMAD
IJAZ GHANI
DIRECTOR (STI)

NOTING

1. Introduction.

2. Definition of a note.

3. When note is required.

4. When note is not required.

5. Requirement of a note.

6. Objective of a note.

7. Advantages of noting.

8. Structure of a note:

a) First Part

b) Second Part

c) Third Part

9. Good noting.

10. Bad noting.

11. Five - Ps Formula.

12. Instructions contained in the Secretariat

Instructions regarding noting.

13. Checks and counter checks.

14. Types of cases.

INTRODUCTION

Note is initiated on the note portion of the file to settle a

matter while remaining in the framework of Rules and Regulations.
A note is written by the Section Officer on file describing the case
which is under consideration. Two or three alternatives are
normally proposed to settle the issue. In other words, a note is a
statement of facts describing the issue under consideration,
suggesting course of action to reach a decision.

DEFINITION

A note means an officer's views in writing on a file within a

prescribed procedural framework to facilitate the high ups to
decide the case under consideration.

WHEN NOTING IS REQUIRED

Whenever is condition arises that a matter is to be

decided by Senior Officer, a note is recorded in file. It is always
prepared within certain procedural framework such as:
 
i) It should clearly state the point under
consideration.
 
ii) Brief background of the case may also be given in
order to highlight the facts of the case.
 
iii) Mis-statement of facts, if any, should also be pointed
out while writing a note.

iv) The statutory instructions should be adopted

while dealing with a case, such as consultation
with the other Ministries / Divisions as
indicated in the Rules of Business.
 
v) After a brief description of the facts of the case,
the Rules / Regulations that are applicable in the case
under consideration are mentioned. A copy of the
relevant Rules is often placed in the correspondence
portion.

vi) 
vi)  Relevant precedents may also be quoted, if available.

vii) 
vii)  In the final portion of a note, the points for decisions
are highlighted again and course of action is suggested. Inthis
regard you may propose a few alternates and suggest the best
course of action.

WHEN NOTING IS NOT REQUIRED

No noting is required when the officer himself is competent

to dispose of a matter under certain clear cut instructions,
orders or delegated powers.
 
Similarly when a case is already decided by a senior officer
and he has asked for a draft reply, the noting is not required
unless there is any point which has been escaped from the notice
of the senior officer.

REQUIREMENT OF A NOTE
 
1. All notes are written on the note sheet and no note
should be recorded on the receipt itself.

2. If a higher officer has given any remarks on the

receipt, these should be copied out on the note sheet
before subsequent notes are recorded.

3. The officer recording the note should affix his

signature on the right side of the note sheet where the note ends.
His / her name, designation and date should also be typed or
rubber stamped below his/her signature.

OBJECTIVE OF A NOTE

A note is written to assist the competent authority to decide

a matter easily. It helps the seniors to study the whole picture of
a case as portrayed by the junior officers. The decision of the
matter is the end point of a note. A well written note leads to
correct decision and a badly composed note may lead to confusion,
wastage of time and ultimately to a bad or wrong decision.
 

ADVANTAGES OF NOTING
 
a.     It presents the various aspects of a matter in a clear
perspective and brings out pros and cons of the point under
consideration.
 
b.   It put down the views of the writer in black and white
and records the precise reason for adopting a particular
course of action considered to be the best out
of all possible courses.
 
c. 
c.    A note is a record of discussion leading to a
particular decision. It can be used as precedent for future
references.
 
d. 
d.   Recorded notes help in understanding reasons for a
particular decision, and in finding out, at what level the
decision was taken.
 
e. 
e.  Responsibility for a particular decision can be fixed
on the bases of recorded note.
 
  f.  Note indicates what steps were taken and what
authorities were consulted before taking final decision.

g. Note enables people who come afterwards to pick up

the tasks where others left.
 
h. A note is a historical record and source of information
for the coming officials.
 

STRUCTURE OF A NOTE

A note has three main parts:

 
1. First Part:
Part: It gives the brief introduction of the case under
consideration.
 
2.  Second Part:
Part: Main points. Mis-statement of facts if any.
Relevant rules, policy of govt. precedents if any.
 
3.  Third Part:
Part: Third part is the conclusion. It may be in the
form of a proposal or recommendation or suggestion.

QUALITIES OF GOOD NOTING

 
a. Paragraphs of a note should be numbered continuously
from the beginning onwards.

b. It should be temperate, objective and free from personal

remarks.

c. It should embody all the relevant material about a case

concisely, but should not repeat facts, arguments, words
and phrases.
                   
d. 
d.  There should be sequence in narration. The points which
should be stated in the beginning must be so stated and
those which should appear in the end, must come at the
end. A disjoined statement of facts will confuse the
reader.

e. The expression should be clear, precise and simple.

f. It should be properly documented and referenced.

g. All previous papers, precedents, rules and regulations

orders, etc. which are relied upon in a note, should, as far as
possible, be put up with it, and referenced.

BAD NOTING
 
1. Reproduction of PUC or FR should be avoided. The
caseunder consideration should be explained briefly in your own
words.

2. Un-necessary details and information contribute to bad

noting.
                 
3. Incorrect statement and unauthenticated facts lead to wrong
decision and therefore adds to bad noting.

4. Personal biases and prejudices makes a note bad.

5. 
5.  Use of flowery language, long sentence and foreign words
are considered bad noting.

6. A wrong decision may be the result of bad noting, therefore,

an extra care is required while noting.

FIVE - Ps FORMULA
 
P-I = PUC
P - II = PREVIOUS PAPERS
P - III = PROCEDURE
P - IV = PRECEDENT
P-V = PROPOSAL

INSTRUCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SECRETARIAT

INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING NOTING
 
1. As a rule, not more than two officers (excluding the
Secretary) shall note upon a case before its final disposal,
except where more than one section may have to be
consulted.
 
2. 
2.  When the higher officer agrees with the note or the
recommendations, he may merely append his signature.

3. 
3.  In cases which can be disposed of directly by an officer, no
elaborate note needs to be recorded.
 
4. Where only perusal of PUC is sufficient to enable a higher
officer to take a decision, there shall be no noting
beyond a brief suggestion for action.

5. The reproduction in a note of verbatim extracts from the paper

under consideration or its paraphrasing shall as a rule be avoided. It shall
be presumed that the paper under consideration will be read by the officer
to whom it is submitted.

6. In complicated or protracted cases, particularly those

involving references to other Divisions, the Section Officer may prepare
and place in a separate cover a duly referenced summary of the case (in
triplicate) which shall be kept up-to-date by incorporating important
decisions. The summary shall be signed by the officer who prepares it.
The facts of the case shall not then be reproduced in the notes portion of
the file. A copy of the summary may, if necessary be retained by another
Division, when the case is referred to it.

7. All notes shall be temperately written and shall be free from

personal remarks. If apparent errors are to be pointed out and if any
opinion is to be criticised it shall be done in respectful language. Proper
decorum shall be observed in commenting upon the notes recorded by
higher authorities.

8. When it is desired to examine the proposal of another office without

showing that office such examination, a ‘routine’ file may be opened. This
procedure should be adopted especially if the proposal is likely to be
criticised severely. The routine file shall not be sent out to another office
without special orders of the competent authority for treating it as a part of
the regular file.

9. To expedite disposal of cases and especially in emergencies,

informal discussions between officers of the same Division shall be
resorted to. The telephone shall be freely used, provided the subject is not
secret. Secretaries and other senior officers shall encourage their
subordinate officers to bring up cases for advice, discussion or disposal.

10. A draft of the communication to be issued shall as a rule, be

prepared at the earliest possible stage of the case.
11.All executive actions of the Government shall be expressed to be taken
in the name of President.

12. In order to avoid audit objections, financial sanctions shall be

expressed to be made by the authority empowered to make them.

CHECKS AND COUNTER CHECKS

 
1. 
1.  Read the P.U.C. carefully. It will help you to
understand the procedure to be adopted for settling a
matter.
 
2. Know the facts of the case. Your personal
interest in the case will help you to find
out any misstatement of facts or data.
 

3. 
3.  Review the pertinent files, relevant to the case and
search out the Rules / Regulations that are
applicable in the case.

4. The policy of the Government should also be

kept in mind while writing a note.
 
5. 
5.  Do not forget to mention the misstatement of facts or
data if any in you note.
 
6. 
6.  Review grammar, spelling and punctuation marks of
your note before signing it.
 
7. 
7.  Make sure that the file is properly referenced and
flagged before its submission to the higher officer.
 

TYPES OF CASES
 
There are different types of cases and each has to be
dealt accordingly. In the official terms there are basically three
types of cases:

1. RESIDENCE

Those cases which are to be dealt urgently are placed

in this category. The nature of urgency can be understood from the
fact that files or papers are sent to an officer's residence after office
hours for disposal. However no files or papers should be sent to
Ministers or officers at their residences between 11.00 P.M. to
07.00 A.M. except in extreme emergency. This restriction does not
apply to Cypher Telegram which may be sent to the residence of
the concerned Minister and Officers by the Duty Cypher Officer,
Crypto Centre, M/O Foreign Affairs, if the urgency of the matter
demands it. Before doing so, the Duty Cypher Officer will contact
the addressee on telephone to confirm that they are available at
the residence to receive such cypher telegrams.

The nature of residence cases varies from office to

office. Each Ministry / Division has its priorities/standing
instructions for such cases. These cases are to be dealt with great
care without any delay. The cases pertaining to national security,
reply of assembly questions, legislative matter etc., may be
included in this category.

2. IMMEDIATE
 
These are the cases which require instant attention of the officer
concerned. In the Secretariat Instructions such cases are to be
disposed of finally within 24 hours. Label indicating "IMMEDIATE"
is attached with such files and these files may be dealt on top
priority basis. In many instances such files are delivered from one
office to another by hand in order to avoid delay involved in
diarising process.
3. PRIORITY
 
Priority cases are those which are to be disposed of
within three days. These cases are different than the routine cases.
It should be clear that use of residence and immediate labels
should be made most sparingly and every case should not be
declared to be immediate or priority otherwise there would be
no logic behind the use of these labels.

Receipts wrongly marked to a section should be

transferred promptly to the concerned section or returned to the
Central Registry. Such receipts should not be diarised in the
section to which they do not relate. Every section officer should go
through the fresh receipt in order to check as to whether the
receipt pertains to his section or not. If he considers that some
receipts are important enough to be seen by higher officer before
action is initiated, he should submit it to the Deputy Secretary or
bring it to him by hand.
In each Ministry/Division there are certain receipts
which are filed directly under the standing instructions without
taking any action on them. For instance advance copies of
applications and requests not made properly (through proper
channel) are filed without taking any action. However, in order to
provide justice such applications may either be discussed with the
Senior Officers or with the applicant, if possible. In a few cases
such receipts are referred back to the concerned quarters
alongwith the covering letter of the Ministry/Division.

SPECIMEN OF NOTE
 56. Ministry of Law, Justice & Human Rights vide FR
have requested for posting of Mr. Muhammad Naeem, Section Officer,
Establishment Division for posting in Provincial Program Management
Unit’s of Punjab on deputation basis for a period of three years.
 57. It is pointed here that Ministry of Law, Justice &
Human Rights have earlier requested for nomination of OMG officers for
posting in Provincial Program Management Unit’s of Punjab, NWFP and
Balochistan under Access to Justice Program on deputation basis.

 58. The nomination of Mr. Muhammad Naeem, Section

Officer, Establishment Division was forwarded to Ministry of Law, Justice &
Human Rights for posting in PPMU, Punjab on deputation basis.
 59. It is submitted here that Mr. Muhammad Naeem was
appointed as Section Officer on the basis of Section Officers Promotional
Examination 1999. The officer remained posted in the Cabinet Division,
Finance Division and Establishment Division. He has not availed any
posting/appointment on deputation during his entire service. He is also
desirous for posting in Lahore due to some domestic problems.

 60. It is stated here that the officer can be posted on

deputation basis on standard terms and conditions of deputation
contained in Establishment Division’s OM No. 1/13/87-R-I, dated 3-12-
1990.

 61. It is, proposed that as desired by Ministry of Law,

Justice & Human Rights we may place the services of Mr. Muhammad
Naeem, Section Officer, Establishment Division at their disposal further
posting in PPMU Punjab on deputation basis.

(Muhammad
Ijaz Ghani)
Section
 Officer (OMG-II)
DS (OMG)
 The Director(A) has stated that the Establishment Division

has informed on telephone that the Disaster Management Authority is conducting

a Seminar on 8th October, 2009 in the Convention Centre, Islamabad. They have

requested that five officers of senior level may be nominated to attend the senior

on the above said date.

2. In view of above, it is proposed that Director General may

like to nominate any five officers among the following for participating in the

seminar:-

S.No. Name/Designation of the officer Telephone/Mobile No.

1. Mr. Jawaid Talat,
Director (Studies)
2. Mr. Allaud-din-Nur Rehman,
Director(Admn)
3. Mr. Badrul Arfeen,
Deputy Director(OMG)
4. Mr. Matloob Hussain Awan,
Deputy Director(Amn-II)
5. Mr. Sakhawat Gul,
Deputy Director(Amnn-I)
6. Mr. Inayat Shah,
Deputy Director(Traning)
7. Muhammad Mumtaz
8. Mr. Noor Ahmed Shad,
Deputy Director (Urdu
Stenography)

3. Submitted, please.

( Sakhawat
Gul )
Deputy
Director(Adm
n-I)

Director(Admn.
178. Spoken. The case is of arrear of deputation allowance to Mr.

Shahzad Iqbal, Ex- Assistant Director, Secretariat Training Institute w.e.f.

1.5.1989 to 30.11.1991.

179. In this regard, it is submitted that the officer was posted in the

Secretariat Training Institute on 15.5.1989 and had served up to 30.11.1989

whereas this Institute was allowed 20% deputation allowance from 18.3.1992.

However, as per clarification made by the Finance Division Regulation Wing

letter dated 11th August, 2007 and Establishment Division letter dated 3 rd

December, 1990 which was later on confirmed by the Finance Division vide

O.M. dated 4th July, 2007 in the light of decision of the Supreme Court of

Pakistan, the officer is entitled for arrear of deputation allowance w.e.f 3 rd

December, 1990 instead of 1.5.1989 as stated by him in his request.

180. In view, of above, it is proposed that that we may seek expert

opinion of DD(FR) in the matter before the case is further processed, please.

( Sakhawat Gul )
Deputy Director(Admn-I)

Director(Admn.
 The case deals with the filling up of vacant posts of BS-19 officers

in the Secretariat Training Institute.

In this regard, it is submitted that the post of Director(OMG)

remained vacant after the transfer of Mr. Habib Ullah Khattak to National

Institute of Management, Peshawar vide Establishment Division’s notification

No. dated. The post of Director(SW) also fell vacant on transfer of Mr.

Ejaz Ghani, the then Director (SW) on . This Institute requested the

Establishment for filling up the two vacant posts of Director(BS-19) time again

and they have verbally agreed that suitable officers of BS-19 will be posted in

the Secretariat Training Institute as early as possible. Now they have informed

at present no officer of BS-19 is available to be posted in the STI.

As already informed to the Establishment Division that the courses

have been increased manifold and it became quite difficult over come the

cumbersome situation due to shortage of directing staff. This also adversely

affects the quality of training.

In view of above, it is proposed that we may once again request the

Establishment Division to fill up these posts on urgently as per draft placed

below for approval, please.

( Sakhawat Gul )
Deputy Director(Admn-I)

Director(Admn.