LAHORE, Jan 23: The slashing of senior posts in the Punjab government’s civil bureaucracy has largely affected officers belonging to district management group (DMG), reducing career prospects (promotions) for them at least in the province.

“We are promoted against available notified seats in each province. Reduction in seats means reduction of promotion prospects,” a senior official said.

A number of mid-career DMG officers seeking anonymity told Dawn that the officers belonging to provincial services had also lost posts but their career would not be affected as they would be adjusted against 200 to 250 posts lying vacant at present.

Provincial Management Service (PMS) officers are occupying 36 each posts of deputy district officer (staff) revenue and coordination and 18 posts of registration which are going to be abolished. As many as 36 posts of executive district officers-revenue (EDO-revenue) are also being abolished and PMS officers hold 17 of them.

DMG officers said that as per the government decision they had lost nine posts in BS-21, 18 in BS-20, and over 13 in BS-19. “This means there will be no promotions of DMG officers against these posts,” said one of the officers.

The lost BS-21 posts include four commissioners of divisions having no city district government, and five DCOs of city district governments. These posts have been downgraded to BS-20.

The BS-20 posts include secretaries of the seven abolished departments, two each members of the Planning and Development Department and the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, and seven special secretaries.The lost posts in BS-19 include that of the withdrawn cadre of EDO-revenue and of additional secretaries of the abolished departments.

The officers said presence of senior DMG officers against junior posts in Punjab was another major hurdle in the promotion of mid-career officers.

There is only one post of BS-22 in Punjab which is of the chief secretary. But four BS-22 officers are staying here against BS-21 posts, blocking the posting of officers of the same grades. They include P&D Chairman Javaid Aslam, Senior Member Board of Revenue Akhlaq Tarar, Additional Chief Secretary Sami Saeed and former chief secretary Javed Mehmood.

Some senior officers in BS-21 belonging to the Seventh Common are also staying here to block posting or career progress of the officers junior to them. “They must go to the federal government to create room for the promotion of mid-career officers,” an official said.