End of the line: Government to lay off all PPP contractual appointees
Ministries barred from extending contracts that expire this month.
The layoff is expected to affect employees within the lowest pay scale of 1-5 on an average income and working in grade 11-16. ILLUSTRATION: S JAMAL/FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The government will press ahead with its plan to lay off all contractual employees hired by the outgoing Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.
A month after the prime minister’s office made the decision, the Establishment Division issued an office memorandum, barring all ministries, divisions, autonomous bodies and corporations from extending contracts that expire this month.
However, an official privy with the development termed the measure as the only way to weed out people appointed by the PPP government.
As a policy to control the wage bill, most workers were hired on contracts by the previous government to deny them benefits which are otherwise available to regular employees. The layoff is expected to affect employees within the lowest pay scale of 1-5 on an average income and working in grade 11-16.
According to sources, employees of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Planning Division will be affected the Most of those employees who were first hired on contract and then regularised by the PPP government will be sent to a surplus pool of employees, the sources revealed.
“The ban on recruitment process imposed by the government on the directions of prime minister’s office, shall be applicable on - extension in contract appointment of already recruited contractual employees,” the office memorandum states.
The memorandum states that extension will not be given to those who were appointed as contingent paid staff. The letter further reveals that there will also be ban on appointment by transfer and induction.
After coming into power in June last year, the PML-N government had imposed a ban on recruitment process.
This is not for the first time that the PML-N has decided to remove the people from jobs who were hired by the PPP. The incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had once disclosed during a Senate Standing Committee meeting that during its second stint, the PML-N government had laid off 56,000 people working in various state-owned banks.
Criticising the government, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said, “History is repeating itself and I am not surprised.” Rabbani said the PPP will vehemently oppose the move and raise the issue in parliament. “This is nothing new whenever the PML-N comes into power it throws out people who are legitimately and legally hired by the PPP government in its tenure,” he added.
Rabbani said the move exposes the difference of philosophy, as the PPP never sacked employees hired by the PML-N government and treated them as servants of the state. Rabbani said he believed the affected employees will go to the court to seek justice.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2014.
The government will press ahead with its plan to lay off all contractual employees hired by the outgoing Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.
A month after the prime minister’s office made the decision, the Establishment Division issued an office memorandum, barring all ministries, divisions, autonomous bodies and corporations from extending contracts that expire this month.
However, an official privy with the development termed the measure as the only way to weed out people appointed by the PPP government.
As a policy to control the wage bill, most workers were hired on contracts by the previous government to deny them benefits which are otherwise available to regular employees. The layoff is expected to affect employees within the lowest pay scale of 1-5 on an average income and working in grade 11-16.
According to sources, employees of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Planning Division will be affected the Most of those employees who were first hired on contract and then regularised by the PPP government will be sent to a surplus pool of employees, the sources revealed.
“The ban on recruitment process imposed by the government on the directions of prime minister’s office, shall be applicable on - extension in contract appointment of already recruited contractual employees,” the office memorandum states.
The memorandum states that extension will not be given to those who were appointed as contingent paid staff. The letter further reveals that there will also be ban on appointment by transfer and induction.
After coming into power in June last year, the PML-N government had imposed a ban on recruitment process.
This is not for the first time that the PML-N has decided to remove the people from jobs who were hired by the PPP. The incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had once disclosed during a Senate Standing Committee meeting that during its second stint, the PML-N government had laid off 56,000 people working in various state-owned banks.
Criticising the government, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said, “History is repeating itself and I am not surprised.” Rabbani said the PPP will vehemently oppose the move and raise the issue in parliament. “This is nothing new whenever the PML-N comes into power it throws out people who are legitimately and legally hired by the PPP government in its tenure,” he added.
Rabbani said the move exposes the difference of philosophy, as the PPP never sacked employees hired by the PML-N government and treated them as servants of the state. Rabbani said he believed the affected employees will go to the court to seek justice.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2014.