Turning up the heat: Divided groups of K-P’s civil service set to lock horns

Heavy contingents of police deployed at Civil Secretariat

PESHAWAR: The internal wrangling between civil servants of K-P’s bureaucracy is headed down a volatile road as sparring officials from both sides are about to lock horns. While there are reports of protests from one side, the other is thinking of ways to use Central Prison Peshawar’s tandoors to turn up the heat for any demonstrators.

Planning ahead, the administration department has been deploying heavy contingents of police, armed with batons and tear gas, at Civil Secretariat for three consecutive days. A prisoner van has also been brought to the secretariat premises.

Officials privy to the development informed The Express Tribune the administration department decided to arrest PCS officers if they hold a rally or sit-in at the secretariat.

“The police have been told to lock them in rooms close to the tandoor at the jail if they try to hold a rally,” said a senior official.

On Wednesday, the administration department escorted Muntazir Khan, a senior PCS officer active in the struggle, out of the secretariat when he tried to gain entry.

Muntazir told The Express Tribune he was physically manhandled by the police. “We were supposed to see the establishment secretary who asked us for a meeting so we can give practical shape to demands approved by the ministers’ committee report,” he said. However, the officer was not allowed to access the secretariat at Gate-4 and was later barred from entering through the home department.

“I was told there are orders not to let me inside. I was waiting in a room with two police officers. When we went out of the room, 40 others had gathered at the home department. The DSP held my hand and escorted me to the gate and told me to wait for my car. I asked him to show written orders, but he could not produce them.

The policemen at the gate were unhappy over these developments. “We have been used. The officers now barred from the secretariat are getting angry at us. We had good relations with them and are now forcing them out of the secretariat,” said a policeman on duty at the gate. He added the civil officials asked them for written orders, but these had not been provided to the force.

A senior official of the government, requesting anonymity, said Muntazir is on medical leave, but was coming to create problems and that was the reason he was not permitted. “If he is on medical leave, it will be better he takes rest,” the official said.

Talking about police deployment, an official said the administration had received information that some PCS officers were trying to create a mob-like situation to defame the government. “We will not allow anybody to do so,” the official said. “The secretariat security’s is the responsibility of the administration department and there are reports that a third party is planning to take advantage of the protest to create problems for the government.”

The official was of the view that a few PCS officers are using the association to create a situation for their own benefit, while the genuine issues of the registered association are completely separate.

Another senior official of the administration department agreed that these agitating officers were from within the government, but authorities would not tolerate violence at any cost. The PCS officers have written a letter to Sikandar Sherpao, the chairperson of the ministers’ committee, informing him of their grievances and certain steps taken by the administration department.

The letter, circulated in the media, raised the matter of the legitimacy of the association’s cabinet, which has been questioned by the administration department, among other things. It states the former cabinet of the association was voted out and an interim cabinet was put in its place. It went on to say that the new cabinet is headed by Abdullah Mehsud as chairman and Ghafoor Baig as president.

The letter accuses the home department secretary of derailing the association’s cause. Is added the home department, along with establishment, has been calling on commissioners and deputy commissioners to keep a check on PCS officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2016.