Their way or highway: PCS officers protest outside chief secretary’s office

Protesters say they will not stop until Amjad Ali is removed from seat

PESHAWAR: Officers of Provincial Civil Services (PCS) held a sit-in outside the office of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Amjad Ali on Wednesday.

Abdullah Mehsud, a senior bureaucrat, who was present at the sit-in, targeted the two-year tenure of the incumbent chief secretary, saying no one in the provincial machinery was happy with his presence.

“Only one person is behind the whole chaos.”

He added they are forced to confront the officers of Pakistan Administrative Service when junior officers of PAS are posted to higher levels in the presence of senior officers of PCS.

He spoke about the rounds of fresh enquiries conducted against PCS officers to take revenge from them for remaining active in the association.

The protesters, including both male and female officers of the provincial cadre, gathered at the lawn outside the chief secretary’s office under a pine tree.

The IT staff association also joined their sit-in and shouted slogans against the chief secretary, accusing him of mismanagement in the province and demanding his immediate removal from the seat.

The sit-in started in the morning and continued till 4pm. It was attended by leaders of all political parties in K-P, excluding those from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Pointing ‘loopholes’

Muntazir Khan, another senior officer, said only PCS officers are indicted in enquiries and “De Novo” enquiries (fresh enquiries) are conducted at the order of the chief secretary.

“I strongly urge him to show us the number of enquiries being held against PAS officers and how many have been completed so far,” he said. “We want to know how many of these enquiries were conducted against PAS officers through PCS officers as members [in committees].”

He added the director general of the anti-corruption department was a good person when he was against the PCS officers, but he was removed when he turned against the chief secretary’s people.

He said they came to the service after passing a competitive examination and if the PCS officers are incompetent then the chief secretary is responsible for it because his people head the public service commission.

While addressing protesters, Fahad Ikram Qazi — who confronted the North Waziristan political agency and was removed from the charge of the assistant political agent of Razmak — said, “There was a perception that officers can’t make trade unions but today’s sit-in proved that wrong.”

He called the last two years of the government the blackest times in the history of PCS officers because of the suppression and enquiries.

“The government is in a state of denial and there is huge human resource mismanagement in the province,” he said.

He added the K-P government claims to have eliminated political interference in government departments, but actually it is the denial of their own powers that the chief secretary is using.

Qazi criticised the government, saying the PCS officers have been struggling, but not a single MPA has come to see them.

“We are not going for a middle path until we drag out the province from this governance disaster,” he added

Unyielding protesters

The officers announced they would reject all orders of the incumbent chief secretary, saying the latter has to quit or the provincial government has to surrender his service to the federal government. They said they will not tolerate the chief secretary on the post.

Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said failed to convince the protesters to adopt a middle ground when he visited their sit-in.

The protesters who were slogans slogans of “Go Amjad Go” asked Said to announce the transfer order of the chief secretary on the spot on behalf of the government. However, Said told them he was not on the driving seat and would meet them after speaking to the chief minister over their issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2016.