Officers vow to adopt legal and constitutional way for their rights
LAHORE: The Provincial Management Services (PMS) (former PCS officers) on Sunday urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to review terms of reference of the task force on civil service reforms and expressed concerns for non-representation and biased attitude towards 4,000 PMS officers.
Addressing a seminar, ‘Civil Service Reforms’, held at a local hotel, the representatives of all provincial management services from across Pakistan said that being the largest civil service group of Pakistan, they welcomed change introduced by the PTI government but as agents of change, they wanted to play our due role in the process of civil service reforms. The seminar was organised by the Punjab chapter of the PMS. The representatives claimed that that they were not being taken on board in decisions affecting their career progression and policy making.
They said that they felt ignored and suppressed over poor career progression and low pay packages.
Having reminded the government of its obligations of good governance and improved service delivery from time to time, they said that about 4,000 PMS/PCS officers of Pakistan affirmed their commitment to promote good governance and efficient public service delivery to the best of their abilities.
They said that PMS/PCS officers hoped that the newly-elected political administrations, at the federal as well as the provincial levels would uphold the promised high ideal of rule of law. They said that any reforms in the civil service structure would take place strictly within the constitutional framework.
They lamented the fact that even Salman Akram Raja, who was the counsel for officers of Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS), former (DMG) in the constitutional petitions in the Supreme Court, filed by the PMS officers of all the provinces of Pakistan, was a member of the task force but the 4,000 PMS officers of Pakistan have been deliberately ousted.
They appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan for the revision of the terms of reference (TORs) of the federal task force on civil service reforms to the extent of provincial services. They demanded the creation of provincial task forces to reform provincial civil services as TORs in federal task force pertaining to provincial and district services were not in line with the spirit of the constitution. ‘Article 240 (B) of the constitution, enunciates 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 posts in connection with the affairs of a province, by or under act of the provincial assembly’.
Through a resolution, they warned the government that they would adopt legal and constitutional way for getting their rights. “We also resolve that if our just demands are not met, we will raise our voice against all unconstitutional steps at every possible forum,” they said. They urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar to decide their pending cases as per law at the earliest.