Daily Times

LAHORE: The Provincial Management Service (PMS) Officers Association Punjab, the body of 1200 officers of BS17 to BS21, has wrote a letter to Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar for redressing their issues and on the subject of demotivating factors for the PMS Officers of Punjab here on Monday.

Association has stated that the officers of the Provincial Management Service (PMS) have been crying hoarse for decades now that they be treated justly and in accordance with law.

According to the letter, the copy of which is available with the Daily Times, the association said that without prejudice to the stance taken in the constitutional petitions of the Provincial Civil Services of all the four provinces of the country which are sub judice before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, they consider it may profound duty to sensitize to the situation, caused by the unfair, arbitrary and unconstitutional IPCC (Inter Provincial Coordination Committee) formula of 1933, which was devised under the caretaker regime of Mueen Qureshi, the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

“However, the Provincial Civil Servants were not taken on board at all while devising this formula. The formula devised by IPCC, a supra constitutional body, is in clear violation of Article 240(b) of the constitution of Pakistan which clearly lays down that “the appointments to and the conditions of service of persons in the service of Pakistan shall be determined in the case of the services of a province and post in connection with the affairs of a Province, by or under Act of the Provencal Assembly,” the latter added.

According to the document, “no means does a caretaker government possess the constitutional authority to take long term police decisions. PMS officers of Punjab who have a legitimate claimed and right in playing their due role in running the affairs of the province, especially in the wake of the 18th Constitutional Amendment that enunciates provincial autonomy, are denied their due share even as per the disputed 1993 IPCC formula in that almost all the senior positions in the secretariat as well as the field including the Chief Secretaries, Additional Chief Secretaries, Chairman P&D, Senior Member Board of Revenue, Secretary to the Government, Heads of Attached Departments and Autonomous Bodies and Divisional Commissioners, are occupied by the Federal officers of the District Management Group (DMG), now renamed as the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS).”

The letter also clarified that besides the issue of infringement of the PMS Officers, the prevalent scheme belies that tall claim of food governance and efficient public service delivery because it reserves such a large number of posts for the DMG officers against which this service group actually does not have the actual numbers on ground. Resultantly a large number of posts in the field, the Secretariat and autonomous bodies are kept vacant which obviously leads to ill governance and poor public service deliver.

An overview of the shortage of officers in Punjab, against the inexplicable large “inverted pyramid”. A very small share in BS-17 and much larger share in Bs-21 (Bs22 being totaly denied to PMS), will make it very lucid to your good self, as to how thing stand on ground. Resultantly, the large number of PMS officers, who are selected through an equal competitive process, have to wait for as long as up to 17 or 18 years for their first promotion from BS17 to BS18, while their contemporary counterparts of the Federal Service reach BS20 by then. All thorough a lopsided, unconstitutional formula got devised through a caretaker government. On top of it all, in sheer violation of Rules, about a hundred officers from various Federal Service Group like postal, Audit & Accounts, Income Tax, Information, OMG have been posted against provincial posts” the letter added

PMS Officers Association Punjab Secretary General Naveed Shahzad Mirza talking to Daily Times said “We hope that the new government of PTI and its Chief Executive of the Province – Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar would take up the genuine administrative issues and resolved it as soon possible. This case is in Supreme Court since 2010 and we hoped that the court will give decision in the favour of them”. In a query, he said our body was remained inactive for long period after year 2011 and now we again take up this matter and it would be resolved.