18th Amendment: Devolved employees seek clarification of status

Policy yet to be created regarding postings, transfers.

ISLAMABAD: The All Pakistan Devolved Employees, a forum representing devolved employees from the Directorate General of Special Education (DGSE) across the country and including Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, will launch a campaign today to press legislators to define the status of their jobs. The group plans to gather outside the Parliament House to demand an implementation of the 18th Amendment and a clarification of their ‘undefined service status’.

The DGSE was established in 1985 and special education centres, schools and complexes were established throughout the country under its umbrella. Following the 18th Amendment, DGSE employees have been devolved to the provinces on a deputation basis under Section 10 of the Civil Service Act of 1973 without their prior consent or through the formulation of any policy.

“The employees were pushed to the provinces without taking into consideration their domicile,” a number of DGSE members said, “And as a result, these employees could not change the place of posting to their desired or native province.” An Implementation Commission was formed at a federal level to formulate policy and service rules for all provinces, enabling them to create legislation on the directives of that policy. “Unfortunately, the commission failed to formulate any policy within the given timeframe,” a DGSE member told The Express Tribune. “The matter was taken over by the Inter Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC), which was also unproductive and the IPCC forwarded the case to the law division, which also failed to formulate any solid policy.”

Subsequently, the DGSE says the provinces did not show interest in the transfer or posting of employees or routine administrative work. While the provincial administration assumed the devolved employees were the responsibility of the federal government, the government adopted a contrary opinion. Thus employees did not receive a deputation allowance and were asked to make recoveries of the deputation already drawn. When employees approached the federal government regarding the issue, they were informed that an NFC award has been allocated to the provinces to meet such expenses. While some employees were removed from service, others did not receive any increments.

In response to a petition filed by these employees, the Peshawar High Court ruled that devolved employees would be given deputation allowances with arrears. Additionally, a committee was formed under Opposition Leader Khurshid Shah to formulate policy to merge employees in various provinces or repatriate them to their original residences. However, the DGSE says no grievances were removed by the committee.

The Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) or IPCC has not yet finalized our seniority list or forwarded it to the provinces to formulate any policy due to which employees were sandwiched between two administrations, they added. The option to absorb or induct employees in the provinces or repatriate them may be given to all devolved employees. Those employees transferred to provinces outside their domicile may be repatriated without any change in seniority, the DGSE says.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2014.