Finding middle-ground: PCS officers nominate committee for talks

Say unending enquiries are one of the ways they are being victimised

PESHAWAR: Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officers have written letters to Sikandar Sherpao, who is heading a Cabinet committee looking into problems faced by them, and nominated a 10-member coordination committee of their own to pinpoint victimisation against the government officials.

The officers of the PCS association went on complete strike from May 16 till May 24 and were holding demonstrations at the Civil Secretariat. The strike was suspended after a committee of four ministers of the K-P cabinet - Sikandar Sherpao, Muhammad Atif Khan, Muzaffar Said and Mushtaq Ghani - gave assurances that the officers’ demands would be addressed.

On Thursday, a core committee of the officers wrote two letters to the committee’s supervisor Sikandar Sherpao. In one of the letters, officers nominated and sent the names of 10 PCS officers to be part of a coordination committee.

The second letter shared details of cases of victimisation against the officers, including the delay in promotion due to prolonged and unending enquiries. It also included cases of what they called victimisation through fake enquiries

According to the letter, these cases needed to be looked into in light of the rules and may be decided on merit. “We believe the enquiries have become a tool of suppression over the past few years.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2016.