PCS officers in KP concerned at PM’s taskforce on civil service reforms

PESHAWAR: The civil servants belonging to the provincial civil services cadre on Friday voiced reservations over the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the taskforce formed by Prime Minister Imran Khan to propose reforms in the civil services at the federal and provincial levels.

The Provincial Civil Services (PCS) and Provincial Management Service (PMS) Officers Association in a letter to the prime minister on Friday expressed reservations over the TORs of the taskforce.

The said the civil service in the provinces is a provincial subject and provincial assemblies are the custodians of civil service under Article 240 (b) of the Constitution. The prime minister on Thursday established a taskforce for the civil service reforms what he has promised in his inaugural address to the nation.

The Cabinet Division has issued the taskforce's ToRs, according to which the taskforce will recommend required lawmaking to implement its plans to the government. It will also design a public service structure both at the federal and provincial levels.

The taskforce will look into human resource policies, management, recruitment, training, and career planning. Dr Ishrat Hussain would be heading the 19-member taskforce.

The letter, sent by the coordinator of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PCS Officers Association, Fahad Ikram Qazi, reiterated that annulment of the Apportionment Formula 1993, which was imposed upon provinces by the caretaker government of Moeen Qureshi, was a requisite for serious Civil Service reforms. It pointed out that in BS-22 posts, the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) cadre officers availed 100 percent share; in BS-21, the PAS gets 75 posts, while the PMS gets 35 percent.

In BS-20, the PAS gets 60 percent, PMS (40 percent), in BS-19, PAS and PMS share 50 percent posts apiece, while in BS-18, the PAS gets 35 percent and the PMS receives 65 percent. Similarly, in the BS-17 positions, 25 percent are allocated to the PAS, while 75 percent posts are assigned to the PMS under the 1993 Apportionment Formula.

The letter also informed that over 1,000 positions in the share of the PAS cadre at the provinces are lying vacant on account of their less number. The provincial officers had to spend 10 to 15 years in one grade, yet not entitled to get promotion on these vacant positions. Besides, all the important senior positions at the provinces are occupied by the PAS officers.

It again is a contentious issue as to how come purely provincial matters (health, education and local government, etc) are being run by the federal officers, the letter says. It's a negation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment and injustice to the hundreds of provincial civil servants and asked that merit-based recruitment and promotion could only be implemented after to annulment of the apportionment formula.