PESHAWAR: The Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officers and federal bureaucracy posted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday buried the hatchet after a yearlong confrontation and strikes.

The thaw came during a meeting between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan and representatives of PCS officers. The PCS officers were represented by Abdullah Mehsud, Sajid Jadoon, Khalid Umerzai, Riaz Mehsud, Muntazir Khan and Fahd Ikram Qazi.

A source told Dawn that the thaw came after weeks of parleys wherein some senior bureaucrats from both the sides tried to defuse the situation.

“The senior officers tried to bridge the gap between the PCS and Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) officers and asked them to settle their issues for the greater good of the civil service and people of the province,” the source said.

He said that Saturday’s meeting came after several such meetings where it was agreed to end the confrontation.

PCS Officers Association president Sajid Jadoon told Dawn that the meeting agreed to a review to increase the number of scheduled posts which provided a chance of promotion to the officers.

Official says chief secretary assures PCS officers of civil service reforms

He said that some of the scheduled posts were arbitrarily retrenched two years ago, which was adversely affecting the provincial officers’ promotion prospects.

He said that as the PCS officers had some reservations the establishment department agreed to expand the scheduled posts.

Mr Jadoon said that deputationists from both the provincial as well federal groups had been irregularly posted against scheduled posts. He said that they asked the chief secretary to repatriate these officers and post eligible provincial officers in place of them. “The chief secretary also agreed to this,” he said.

He said that in addition to this accountability and Police Ordinance also came under discussion. Mr Jadoon said that they assured their full support to the chief secretary with regard to accountability process.

He said that it was ironic that the government had provided security and autonomy to the police through a law, while the same was denied to civil servants.

“The civil bureaucracy has been left vulnerable as even in case of a secretary’s arrest, nobody cares,” Mr Jadoon said, adding that while police had been given legal cover. He said that the civil officers were detained even if they acted in good faith.

He said that they demanded the same protection for the civil servants as well, as bureaucracy was the face of government. He said that accountability issue would be taken up in the secretaries committee meeting, which was scheduled for Monday.

An official who attended the meeting told this reporter on condition of anonymity that all their important issues were discussed threadbare and the chief secretary assured them of resolution of their demands. He said that the chief secretary assured them that efforts would be made for civil service reforms.

“We have buried the hatchet with the chief secretary and whatever happened was unfortunate,” the official added, saying that causes which led to this situation should be resolved to bring administrative stability to the province.

He said that revision of apportionment formula was currently before a provincial assembly committee and the matter did not fall in the chief secretary’s domain.

He said that Speaker Asad Qaisar and provincial minister Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli had failed to convene a single meeting of this committee though bureaucracy remained in a chaotic situation for over a year.

The PCS officers had started their strike in August last year and in May this year they again observed a strike for three weeks wherein they observed sit-in at the Civil Secretariat. Also in May, the KP chief minister had formed a five-member cabinet committee to resolve the issue.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2016