Civil servants warn of strike over demands

PESHAWAR: Bureaucrats belonging to the provincial civil service cadre on Monday alleged that the government was not paying heed to their long-standing issues and warned of going on strike if their grievances were not resolved.

The Provincial Civil Servant Association and Provincial Management Service (PMS) held a meeting at the Civil Secretariat that noted that the issues of civil service had been pending for the past many years. A press release of the PCS Officers Association said the association has been in contact with the government on all the issues, but the government was not paying any heed to the very genuine and legal demands of the PMS officers.

After detailed discussion, the following issues were decided to be conveyed to the government.

It said 200 seats in the share of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) are still lying vacant and the same should be filled out in by promoting PMS officers.

The association also demanded all deputationists posted to schedule positions should be repatriated to the parent departments and the allowance extended to them withdrawn. And the same should be allocated as a utility allowance to the secretariat staff. It also sought the change of the nomenclature from additional assistant commissioner (AAC) to the assist commissioner (AC).

The association also demanded parity in posting and transfers through the introduction and strict implementation of rotation policy and constitution of a placement committee to ensure merit and intra-cadre parity. As of now, all postings are biased and officers are to run from pillar to post to find political and bureaucratic favours, the release said. The issue of director general Mines was also discussed and alleged violation of rules in the matter saying that the grievance redressal cell has been compiling all such cases and would be taken up accordingly.

It said the association representing about 1000 officers will give a call for wearing black bands and pen down strike across the province in the coming week if their problems were not addressed.