The 2015 batch of PMS officers – who had completed their 18-month long, pre-service training at the Pakistan Provincial Services Academy (PPSA) on July 4 – are awaiting posting at the K-P Establishment department.
Through a letter, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the PMS officers have demanded parity, over postings, with PAS officers sent to K-P.
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The PMS officers are not happy to be posted as additional assistant commissioners (AAC) under subordination of the PAS officers posted as assistant commissioners (AS).
“The nomenclature of the AAC may kindly be changed to AC as it creates a scenario of inferiority among AAC officers in the field,” states the letter, adding, “K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has also given approval to the notion of changing AAC to AC, but [it] is yet to be implemented.”
The letter cites the example of the federal government and other provinces where the AAC nomenclature has been changed and where postings in the fields are titled as AC-I, AC-II, AC-III.
Similarly, in the judiciary, the same pattern is being followed in the lower cadre where civil judges are posted as CJ-I, CJ-II, CJ-III and so on.
The PSM officers want the same pattern to be adopted in K-P over field postings, saying, “Our batch may kindly be posted as ACs instead of AACs as it will keep the motivation of the PMS Officers alive.”
Giving an alternative, the letter says that in case the nomenclature cannot be changed, officers of the PAS cadre should also be appointed as AACs and section officers (SO) in their initial postings so as to bring parity.
An officer of the batch, who requested anonymity, told this correspondent that their batch had been given 18-month long, pre-service training – the longest of the training given to all previous batches of the PMS cadre.
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The training comprised 12 months academy training, featuring modules like local government, revenue, basics of information technology, project management, financial management, Fata administration and laws, said the officer.
He informed that they were given six-month field attachments which included secretariat attachment, military attachment, police attachment, Fata attachment, attachments in the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and revenue department. Furthermore, they were also sent for district attachment as ACs for two and a half months.
“If we got more training than the PAS officers, why should we be treated like we are inferiors?” the officer questioned, adding that posting them as AACs and the PAS officers as ACs would affect their motivation and cause inferiority complex.
The association of PMS Officers is already struggling against the disparity in postings between the two cadres in the province and have been on pen-down strikes since 2015.
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