Government, PMSA agree to continue talking

LAHORE: The provincial government moved expeditiously on Friday evening to defuse the situation resulting from the suspension of its dialogue with the Punjab Management Service Association (PMSA) and the strike call given by the latter for Monday.

A PMSA delegation met with the government representatives – Senator Pervez Rashid, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and MPAs Atta Muhammad Khan Maneka and Sheikh Alaud Din – at a meeting convened at short notice at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. The PMSA reservation regarding two DMG officers in the committee was addressed by replacing Sami Saeed, the additional chief secretary, and Jalal Sikandar Sultan Raja, the services secretary, with MPAs Maneka and Sheikh. It was agreed then that the committee will meet at 3pm on Saturday to discuss the entire agenda. Secretaries Saeed and Raja will attend the meeting as representatives of the DMG officers. The PMSA will be represented by five officers – Rai Manzoor Nasir, Sagheer Ahmed Baloch, Afzal Ahmed, Madam Asifa and Arshad Waraich.

Sources close to the PMSA told The Express Tribune that the provincial services officers will seek immediate implementation of the relief package consisting of 12 demands submitted to the committee on Thursday.

They said the demands can be met within three days to a week. Unless the government is willing to agree to a timeframe in this regard, they said, the strike call will stand.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2010.