The last page? PMS officers settle their issues with chief secretary

Amjad Ali Khan says he cannot help them with apportionment formula of 1993

PESHAWAR: Officers of the provincial cadre in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have ended their year-long conflict with officers of the federal cadre posted in the province.

“We have buried the hatchet today,” an active member of the Provincial Civil Services/ Provincial Management Services officers’ association, Fahad Ikram Qazi, told The Express Tribune on Saturday. “However, the root cause of the issue, which is the apportionment formula of 1993, has yet to be resolved by the assembly and the committee of the assembly has not convened a single meeting despite our boycotts and protests which caused governance issues in the province.”

He added they settled the issue for the sake of administrative stability in the province.

A delegation of officers of PCS/PMS, including Abdullah Mehsud, Riaz Mehsud, Muntazir Khan, Qazi, Sajid Jadoon and Khalid Khan, held a meeting with K-P Chief Secretary Amjad Ali Khan at the Civil Secretariat on Saturday,  said an official who was present at the meeting.

He told The Express Tribune the chief secretary assured the delegation that all their demands pertaining to their transfers, postings, promotions, nomination for foreign trainings, repatriation of officers on deputation who are posted on cadre posts and enquiries against PCS/PMS officers.

Previous talks

“A series of negotiations were under way for about a month between the PCS/PMS officers and the chief secretary—the head of the bureaucracy in the province—which resulted in the settlement of the issue,” the official said. “The chief secretary assured the PCS/PMS officers of addressing all their demands, except for the issues pertaining to the apportionment formula of 1993 which is with a committee of the K-P Assembly –the matter does not fall in his domain.”

Officers of the provincial cadre went on a pen-down strike twice – once in August in 2015 and then in May. The K-P government had constitued a committee of ministers to resolve their issue as the officers had boycotted duties and were holding sit-ins on the premises of Civil Secretariat, halting the government businesses.

After long deliberations with the officers, a committee chaired by K-P Minister for Irrigation Sikandar Hayat Sherpao had submitted its recommendation that was approved by the chief minister.

Disputed demands

The officers’ primary demands included the repealing of the apportionment formula which defines the distribution of posts between the officers of the provincial and federal cadres in the province. The issue pertaining to the formula is with the K-P Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law Reforms and Control on Subordinate Legislation. They were demanding the revision of Schedule-II of the PMS Rules 2007— that says the promotion of PCS/PMS officers is calculated on the basis of the number of posts included in the schedule—along with repatriation of those on deputation on cadre posts, parity in transfer postings and stopping de novo enquiries against PMS/PCS officers. These are enquiries that start before the previous one is completed.

The officers were at loggerheads with the chief secretary because he heads the bureaucracy and were demanding his removal. But after Saturday’s meeting with him, the officers settled their issues.

PCS Officers Association President Sajid Jadoon said they had distanced from the chief secretary due to the issues. “But now the chief secretary has given us his assurance that the issues would be sorted– we assured him our corporation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2016.