PM under mounting pressure to exempt blue-eyed bureaucrats from transfer policy

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is under tremendous pressure from both the politicians and the bureaucrats to make exceptions to the government's inter-provincial transfer policy for civil servants, a close aide to the PM told The News.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said those lobbying the prime minister to exempt certain blue-eyed bureaucrats include the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) provincial governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The source in the PM Office said the Secretary Establishment is expected to be summoned soon by the PM, possibly to discuss the cancellation of several transfer orders issued but not yet complied with.fear that if Imran Khan were to succumb to the pressure of influential civil servants, the PTI government’s promise of de-politicising the civil bureaucracy could be dispensed with.

Within a fortnight of assuming office, PM Khan amended the rotation policy for civil servants and directed the Establishment Division to implement the policy without exception. The amended policy includes a new clause, which reads: “PAS/PSP (Pakistan Administrative Service/Police Service of Pakistan) officers of Basic Pay Scale (BPS)-21 and below, who have served in any provincial government or federal government for a continuous period of not less than 10 years, may be transferred to the federal government or other provinces, as the case may be, in the public interest."

"The period spent on extraordinary leave/earned leave/study leave/officer on special duty/training/deputation/foreign posting shall be excluded for the purpose of computing the continuous period of 10 years and will not be treated as a break,” the new clause says.

Under this policy, the Establishment Division, in the first phase, has notified the transfer of dozens of PAS officers in BPS 20-21, and rotated them between the provinces and centre. Most of these officers have joined their new regions of posting, but there are several bureaucrats who are yet to comply with these orders.

These officers have started to exert pressure on the PM Office and Establishment Division through provincial governments, senior bureaucrats, politicians and other influential quarters, so as to obtain exemptions from the rotation policy.

If successful, they could cause the collapse of the policy, as had happened in the past, the aide to the PM warned. It has been many years since a government dared to rotate bureaucrats of the influential PAS and PSP cadres. Pressure is building on the PM before a second phase of transfers can be extended to the PSP.

This reflects the pattern of the last three decades. Successive governments have each formulated a inter-provincial transfer policy for the PAS (ex-District Management Group) and PSP, but none - including military ruler Pervez Musharraf - could implement them.

Each time, the implementation of these policies were thwarted within weeks, because exceptions were made under pressure from influential bureaucrats reluctant to leave their province of choice.

In a recent story, The News had cited a senior bureaucrat saying that, by launching the rotation policy, the Imran Khan government had put its authority to the test. The coming few weeks and months would determine whether or not Khan is any different to his predecessors, he had said.