KP going through administrative crisis, civil servanttell Dr Ishrat

PESHAWAR: The civil servants belonging to the provincial civil service cadres on Tuesday informed head of the Prime Minister Taskforce on Civil Service reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was going through an administrative crisis as 200 positions in the share of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), previously known as District Management Group (DMG) cadre, were lying vacant in the province.

The Provincial Civil Service (PCS) and Provincial Management Service (PMS) representatives took up their career-related issues with Dr Ishrat Hussain, who was on a day-long visit to the provincial metropolis. The office-bearers and members including Ghafoor Beg, Mutahir Zeb, Qaiser Khan and Fahad Ikram Qazi called on the Prime Minster Taskforce chairman to inform him of the problems they are facing.

Fahad Ikram Qazi, coordinator of the associations, while giving account of the taskforce meeting to The News, said Dr Ishrat Hussain briefed them on his plan for civil service reforms and structure of national and provincial executive service.

He said they conveyed their reservations over the decision of the government not to take any representatives from the PMS to be on the taskforce as the entire reforms committee was composed of the PAS officers.

He said Dr Ishrat Hussain did not respond positively to their contention, but replied at the same time that the consultative process could cater to the matter at the later stages. The rest of the debate mostly was pertaining to the "illegal and unconstitutional" Apportionment Formulae 93 wherein the federal government has literally occupied the provincial governments at the cost of the PMS officers' career progression, he added.

Fahad Ikram Qazi said Dr Ishrat Hussain was also informed that the province was going through an administrative crisis as 200 positions in the share of the PAS were lying vacant whereas promotions of hundreds of PMS officers were long overdue. He said the taskforce head was also informed that posting of PAS officers to provinces on provincial positions was illegal in the wake of 18th Constitutional Amendment.

However, Dr Ishrat Hussain did not give any heed to the assertion and regretted outright to consider the same as an issue of the civil service at all. "It led to a brief argument, but to no avail," Fahad Ikram Qazi said. He said the PCS officers stressed the need for inclusion of PMS representatives in the taskforce and also termed Apportionment Formula 93 as the principal structural anomaly of the civil service.

He said that soon after their meeting with the Dr Ishrat Hussain, the PCS and PMS Association held a meeting and decided that the civil service reforms taskforce should be inclusive having representation of