PA body to take up provincial bureaucracy reservations today

PESHAWAR: The provincial bureaucracy has submitted its case of disparity in posting, promotions and career progression to the Law Reforms Committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly that is scheduled to take up the matter today.
The provincial bureaucracy also asked the legislators to protect the provincial service as under Article 240(b) of the 1973 Constitution the provincial assembly is the custodian of Provincial Civil Service.
In its brief, the Coordination Council of the Provincial Civil Service (PCS) groups such as Secretariat Group, (PCS-SG) and Executive Group (PCS-EG) and Provincial Management Service (PMS) said that over 600 civil servants in BS-17 to BS-21 had submitted their case to the committee as the Speaker of provincial assembly had referred the matter related to the posting of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) in the province and other issues concerning the posting, promotion and career building of the PCS officers to it. It said that provincial civil servants are faced with various issues which are detrimental to their performance and were affecting the entire provincial administration.
The brief submitted to the assembly committee on Law Reforms said the officers of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) were posted to the provinces under Composition and Cadre Rules of 1954 after an agreement between the Governor General and provincial governors. Under these rules, the provinces had surrendered certain number of posts to the federation and the arrangement was given protection in explanation of the Article 240(b).
However, they noted that in 1973 the federal government unilaterally enhanced their cadre strength through a mere notification on August 21, 1973, in violation of the Article 240 (b) bypassing the provincial assembly. It said the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) Rules 1954 provides for 30 percent federal share in provinces on reciprocal basis, but the same was denied to the provinces.
It noted that the current apportionment formula of 1993 further increased the cadre strength of PAS. As per this formula, All Pakistan Unified Group (APUG) and PAS appropriated a number of posts of every province wherein in grade17 the PAS gets 25 percent while PMS/PCS receives 75 percent, in grade-18 the PAS share is 40 percent and PMS/PCS 60 percent. In grade-19 both PAS and PMS and PCS share is 50 percent apiece. In grade 20 the PAS officers are posted on 60 percent posts, while PCS officers get 40 percent. In grade-21 the PAS officers get 65 percent share and PCS officers are posted on just 35 percent posts while in grade-22 only PAS officers are posted in the province.
The PCS officers informed the provincial assembly body in their submission that they rejected this formula as it “has no legal standing and was in violation of Article 240(b). It was decided by an interim government and only the PAS officers decided it at the meeting where no provincial civil servant was present.”
They pointed out after the 18th Constitutional Amendment only provincial officers are responsible for administering the civil services. However, they said the APUG are still allowed to serve in provinces on the posts common to federation and provinces. “After abolition of the concurrent list no such common subject or posts exist between the federal and provincial governments. The District Management Group (DMG) has become redundant and the federal government has also changed the nomenclature of DMG to PAS, which should only be restricted to the federal government and to posts in relevant to the affairs of federation,” the PCS officers said.
They maintained that the chief secretary and Establishment Department has embarked upon rightsizing of the bureaucracy in the province without consulting the cadre and the competent authority such as provincial assembly as a summary has already reportedly been processed to curtail the schedule of PCS.
They asked the assembly committee to summon the representative of the Establishment Department to explain the problem, the reason for such actions, and the process adopted for the purpose.
The provincial assembly, the civil servants said, being custodian of the civil services should look into the matter and help ensure fairness, transparency in posting, promotion and career progression of the provincial civil servants.