Civil servants in Balochistan: Senate panel asks Establishment Division to withdraw notification

ED told to submit reply in the next meeting

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on the Cabinet Secretariat has asked the Establishment Division (ED) to either withdraw a controversial notification about the posting of civil servants in Balochistan or draw up a similar policy for the other provinces.

In the fourth meeting on the issue, senior bureaucrats of ED could not persuade the senators, about the notification restricting civil servants in Balochistan to work in the province for at least seven years before qualifying for posting in other provinces.



As per the new rotational policy, in the case of promotion of BS- 19, the officer would be entitled to serve outside the province provided he has served in Balochistan for at least seven years. Similarly, to be promoted to BS- 21, the officer will have to serve in Balochistan for 10 years. The said policy, however, is only applicable to civil servants in Balochistan.

On Tuesday, Senator Mir Kabir asked ED officials why the policy was limited only to Balochistan.

“Is it because the officers of the province have no say about anything related to their fate in the bureaucracy?” he asked. In that case, he said, a similar notification ought to be issued for other provinces.

In response, ED Additional Secretary (AD) Maroof Afzal said the decision was taken in the light of the shortage of officers in the province compared to other provinces.

Speaking on the matter, Senator Yousaf Badini suggested that a similar policy should also be drafted for other provinces.

When asked what was being done to officials in other provinces if they failed to serve in their home province, Afzal maintained that they were being punished.

But when Sardar Muhammad Khan asked him if he could name any officer of other province, Afzal could not name any one.

He also asked that out of half a dozen civil servants in the meeting how many had served in Balochistan.

The head of the committee concluded suggesting that the ED should submit a reply in the next meeting and should either withdraw the notification or issue a similar policy for other province.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2017.