Everybody who comes in contact with government departments has a story to tell.
ISLAMABAD: There is no doubt that in Pakistan the bureaucracy is inept, inefficient, unresponsive and incompetent. Everybody who comes in contact with government departments has a story to tell. Here is mine: In May 2010, the Regulation Wing of the Finance Division of the Government of Pakistan, in compliance with a judgement of the Federal Service Tribunal, issued a notification allowing an annual increment to those Grade 20 civil servants who had earlier been denied a raise and for that a bureaucratic technicality was cited. Many civil servants, serving and retired, have benefitted from the Tribunal’s judgement.
I was drawing the maximum salary for a Grade 20 officer in November 1997 and was therefore entitled to this annual increment too, and it should have applied retrospectively from December 1, 2001.
The office of the AGPR in Islamabad and the National Police Academy have paid my dues for the period December 1, 2001 to December 14, 2006. However, the office of the Accountant General, Balochistan is reluctant to pay my dues for the period Decemeber 15, 2006 to March 31, 2008, which is when I retired as an additional inspector-general of police.
I have discussed my case via telephone with the AG Balochistan (who is a most polite officer) but to no avail. I live in Islamabad and am being asked to visit Quetta to explain my claim, which is quite clear in light of the Federal Service Tribunal’s judgement.
I would like to request the Auditor General of Pakistan and the Controller General Revenues to kindly intervene in the matter and direct the AG Balochistan to settle my claim as soon as possible. The Central Police Office, Balochistan, has already forwarded the relevant papers to the AG’s office.
I am not the only one who has suffered in this manner — I know of many other retired civil servants who have had similar cases with various government departments.
Asghar Mahmood
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2012.
