July 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 5, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 8: A Senate body has directed the Cabinet Secretariat to urgently draw up plans for expansion and upgradation of women hostels being managed by it.

“Presently their numbers is too small to accommodate the growing number of women government employees,” the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Special Initiatives, which met here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Senator Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, observed.

The committee also directed the Secretariat Training Institute (STI) working under the Establishment Division to bring necessary changes in its curricula for inculcating a sense of public service among the public servants in order to make them responsive to the public needs and aspirations.

“They are public servants who are being paid from the public exchequer and, therefore, they must behave accordingly and shun all the notions that they are above the common man,” the body stressed.

The committee also directed the STI to focus on bringing about ‘attitudinal change’ in the government servants and shaking off the traditional inertia and lethargy and lack of initiatives which, it said, has not only reduced their efficiency but also lowered their esteem in the public eye.

“Such a demoralised lot is not expected to deliver,” the Senate body maintained.

It called for preparing a middle and junior level bureaucracy which is well-equipped not only with education and training but also has the will and capacity to deliver in order to face the challenges of the new millennium.

“A smiling face and efficient approach is what the nation expects from the public servants,” it said. The committee also took exception to the reports according to which various vocational training institutes (VTIS) being run by the Staff Welfare Organisation were (SWO) in a bad shape, especially in Karachi and Lahore, and that they are not working according to their full capacity.

It recommended that the skills being imparted there should be up-graded and the teachers and instructors be given better training to impart those skills.

The committee directed the DG to visit all the VTIs and submit a report to the committee.

The body recommend to the government to provide more funds for the welfare of the government servants, especially in the area of medical treatment. “Quality medical treatment is very expensive and a majority of government servants cannot afford it,” the committee observed.

It also called for upgrading the Holiday Homes being managed by the SWO under the Establishment Division. The committee took a serious notice of closure of this facility at Sandspit at Karachi which, it said, has the potential to earn a lot of revenue.

It asked the Establishment Division to apprise the committee of the hurdles and bottlenecks being faced by it, especially with regard to their expansion and upgradation of facilities.

Earlier, secretary Cabinet Secretariat submitted that better education, training and promotion prospects and facilities are what the present lot of government servants lack in.

“Hence, they are a demoralised lot. However, the same people can make a difference if we provide them with a better environment and bright prospects for future,” the secretary said.

The meeting was attended by, among others, senators Muhammad Abbas Komaili, Chaudhry Muhammad Anwar Bhinder and Ms Fauzia Fakhar-uz-Zaman, besides senior officials of the Cabinet Secretariat.