PCS officers warn of strike if row with PAS not resolved

PESHAWAR: Over 600 officers of the Provincial Civil Service (PCS) group on Wednesday renewed the warning to observe a pen-down strike if their row with the Pakistan Administrative Service cadre officers over the matter of promotion and posting was not resolved.
The PCS officers, at a meeting held at the Civil Secretariat, also asked the provincial government to remove the anomalies from the Ehtesab Act, which had led to the harassment of the officers.
According to the press release of the PCS and Provincial Management Service (PMS) Officers Associations, the row between PCS and PAS officers has not yet been resolved by the provincial assembly. It said that the PCS officers were asked by the provincial assembly speaker and other parliamentary leaders to refrain from agitation with the assurance that their problems would be solved.
However, the matter has been kept pending for the last four months on the pretext of its being subjudice at the Supreme Court since 2010.
The release said that there were no restraining orders from the Supreme Court, and hence there was no bar on the assembly to take up the issue as it is a superior entity being the legislature.
It was unanimously decided that if the matter was not resolved this week, the PCS officers would resort to pen-down strike across the province and Fata from next week.
The issues of Ehtesab Commission also came up for discussion at the meeting. It was noted that the PCS Officers Association supported the government in eradication of corruption.
However, all the officers and even assembly members agree that the Ehtesab Act has anomalies, which has led to harassment of the officers and resulted in impeding almost all the financial operations of the government.
A cabinet committee was constituted to remove anomalies from the Act, but the committee has yet to present its report, the press release said.
The PCS Association has already submitted its working paper about the Ehtesab Act to the cabinet committee, it added.