PMSA calls off strike

LAHORE: The Provincial Management Service Association (PMSA) on Saturday called off its protest strike scheduled for Monday following acceptance of its demands by the committee set up by the chief minister to deal with the grievances of the provincial services officers.

The decision was announced on Saturday after a five-hour meeting between the PMSA representatives and members of the committee.

Rai Manzoor Nasir, the PMSA president, said that the 12 demands put forth by the PMSA were discussed in detail during the meeting.

The PMSA president added that about 80 per cent of the demands were accepted during the meeting.

The remaining demands were referred to the Services and General Administration secretary who has been told to submit a compliance report to the committee by July 31.

Nasir said the legal demands of the Civil Secretariat Employees’ Association, which represents officials in BS-1 to BS-16, were also discussed. The committee has agreed to redress their grievances.

He said that the committee had directed the Management and Professional Development secretary to let three PMS officers, who were earlier expelled, to attend the training sessions from Monday.

He said the delegation was assured that if the secretary failed to comply with the instructions, he would be taken to task.

He said that there was no point in going ahead with the strike after the committee had accepted their demands and they had recieved assurance that all legal rights of the PMS officers and subordinate staff would be provided without further delay.

The meeting was attended by Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, MPAs Atta Muhammad Maneka and Sheikh Alaud Din, Jalal Sikandar Sultan Rana, the services secretary, and five PMSA members Rai Manzoor Nasir, Arshad Waraich, Sagheer Shahid Baloch, Muhammad Afzal Chaudhry and Asifa Murtaza.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2010.