Officials working at the directorate are yet to get a whiff of the government’s plans and anxiously await a decision in this regard. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR: Staffers of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Information Directorate are faced with uncertainty as the government is mulling options to cut the department’s size.
Sources in the department said that under a rationalisation policy, the government is set to bring down the department’s strength to 80 from 288, with the remaining officers likely to be attached to other departments.
Officials working at the directorate are yet to get a whiff of the government’s plans and anxiously await a decision in this regard.
A department official told The Express Tribune that at present, the directorate employs about 288 people, including staff for two radio stations in Peshawar and Mardan. However, he said the government will not move officials working at the radio stations as they are specialists in their field.
The directorate also has seven regional offices in Abbottabad, Swat, Mardan, Kohat, DI Khan, Bannu and Islamabad. However, except Islamabad, the rest of the offices will be shut down.
At the directorate level, the director information will be retained and the advertisements, press and journalist affairs branch will not be affected, with these offices employing the 80 personnel that will remain, he shared.
The official said they are worried about their future after the implementation of the rationalisation policy. “Nothing is clear yet as to what they (the government) are up to,” he said.
Matters of seniority, promotions and other terms of reference are the main cause of worry for staffers who will be sent to other departments.
He said the information minister had not paid a single visit to the department since taking over office. “He should have given us guidance about the government’s vision but nothing of the sort was done and we are still waiting,” he said.
The official said now the government has appointed a new information director and should give him time to prove himself.
He said the department was set up in 1949 and catered to only two newspapers for a long time, adding the government failed to take serious steps to upgrade it in view of changes taking place in the media. “The department’s employees still lack a service structure,” he said.
The official said the provincial government was interested in setting up a media cell at a cost of Rs230 million, to be headed by a media adviser, two communication specialists and public relations officers (PROs) of ministers.
Senior Minister for Finance Sirajul Haq told reporters last Thursday the government was planning to abolish many directorates and PROs will be adjusted in other departments, adding the government was designing promotion procedures for information staffers.
Similarly, Minister for Information Shah Farman told reporters on Saturday the rationalisation policy aims to improve the performance of government departments and will be replicated in all government departments.
He said cutting down the information department’s size has become a media issue due to the close interaction between journalists and the directorate. He said previously, ministers would complain about their publicity and PROs, and because of this the government has decided to adjust them in other departments. “They will work with the departments in close coordination and put an end to complaints from ministers,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2014.
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No one is getting fired. Everyone will keep their job. So whats the issue. transfers to other departments are not abnormal. Why create a hullabaloo over something that is pretty much nothing. PTI Govt had originally planned to eliminate the department although they didnt have time before the last budget hence doing it this time.