Sindh govt requests the Centre to fill in the gaps

Service department may suffer as large number of officers have been removed or transferred.

KARACHI:

The federal government has been requested to put officers from the federal services groups at the disposal of the Sindh government, whose services may get affected after the removal of 200 junior officers working in the own-pay scale (OPS) on the senior posts, it was learnt on Friday.

This disclosure came in a report submitted by the provincial chief secretary to the Supreme Court's Registry Branch regarding compliance of the apex court's orders.

The chief secretary submitted that orders were issued on May 9 to the heads of as many as 44 government departments and five commissioners asking that all officers under the control of the Services, General Administration and Cooperation Department posted on the OPS have been transferred.

In addition to this, police officers posted on the OPS in BS-20 and BS-21 had also been transferred. The report stated that the chief secretary with the approval of the chief minister had issued four separate notifications on May 19 and May 25, ordering 206 POS officers to report to their parent departments.

"All the administrative departments have been directed to ensure compliance of the SC's order and implementation of the subsequent notifications of transfer of the officers on the OPS,” said the chief secretary.

Fill the gap

The report said since a large number of officers had been removed and transferred there was apprehension that the work of the provincial government will get affected due to shortage of officers. Therefore, the secretary of the establishment division has been informed that the Sindh government is facing a shortage of the officers of the All Pakistan Unified Group (APUG), the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) and the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP).

In the letter, the Sindh government said that the establishment division had been asked to appoint a replacement from these federal service groups in the province. In order to meet the shortage, the officers who were allowed postings on the OPS as stopgap arrangements, but they have now been transferred.

The Centre has been requested to put the officers from APUG, PAS and PSP groups at the disposal of the provincial government, as its work will be suffer owning to the scarcity of the officers.

According to the provincial government, the total strength of the officers of APUG and PAS working in PS-17 to BS-20 is 816 of which Sindh's share is 335. The report said the current working strength of the federal government officers is 131, adding there is still shortage of 204 officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2014.