PMS, PCS officers to campaign for acceptance of demands

Ask KP government to implement decisions on service matters

PESHAWAR: The civil servants of both the cadres of Provincial Management Service (PMS) and Provincial Civil Service (PCS) have planned to embark upon a series of corner meetings across the province to press the government for acceptance of their demands concerning service matters.

According to the working paper of the meetings shared with the media by the coordinator of the Provincial Civil Service Officers’ Association, Fahad Ikram Qazi, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was not implementing its own decisions to resolve the issues related to the service matters of the provincial civil servants.

It said the provincial assembly is the sole custodian of civil service under Article 240(b) of the 1973 Constitution. It argued that the Civil Servants Act of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was enacted under 240(b) the same year wherein no share has been given to the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS). It claimed the federal government encroached upon the provincial domain through Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs) and apportionment formulae 1993 in sheer violation of the Constitution. “Posting of PAS officers to this province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) is unconstitutional, illegal, injustice to PMS officers and the root-cause of mis-governance in the province,” it added.

The issue of PMS officers vis-à-vis PAS was also raised in the assembly through an adjournment motion a year ago. Subsequently, the case was referred to the assembly’s standing committee on legal reforms and subordinate legislation.A meeting of the committee was held on April 7, 2015 wherein a technical committee was constituted which would present its findings to the subject committee within four weeks.

“The technical committee has had several meetings wherein the contention of this Association was accepted as legitimate,” the working paper said.However, it noted that instead of expediting the issue, the committee procrastinated and kept postponing the meetings. “The committee attempted to dump the case on an unjustified pretext of the same being sub judice in the Supreme Court,” the PCS Association working paper stressed.

It informed that the committee has not held any meeting for long despite frequent requests by the PCS Officers Association. “The Association presumes the committee has been influenced so as not to proceed in accordance with the law,” it said.

The working paper maintained that the Association having strength of about 700 officers from BS-17 to BS-21 has been running the affairs of government at all the departments, districts and FATA. It noted that the officers were faced with a number of issues which have resulted in discontentment among them and consequently affected the entire provincial administration.

It said the officers’ body also held a series of meetings with all stakeholders and again met the chief minister who decided the matters there and then and directed the chief secretary for its implementation.

It pointed out that for the last three months the Establishment Department has been sitting on the orders of the chief minister causing resentment among the officers.

“The Association, therefore, appeals to the government to implement its own decisions for betterment of the PMS, PCS officers, and undertake comprehensive civil service reforms which would lead to better service delivery and good governance in the province,” it added.Fahad Ikram Qazi told The News they would soon take a decision to stage strike if the government continued to ignore their genuine demands.