PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mines and mineral development minister Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli on Friday called for the review of the 1993 formula about the distribution of administrative posts in the province between the provincial and federal bureaucracy.

Addressing a conference on civil service reforms arranged by the Provincial Civil Service Officers Association at the Nishtar Hall here, the minister said the 1993 apportionment formula made by the Moin Qureshi-led caretaker government in the centre was not something, which couldn’t be changed.

“It (formula) needs to be changed and it should be changed. It was done through a SRO and was not a constitutional provision. We will get it changed,” she said.

Ms Tahirkheli, who also heads a sub-committee of the provincial assembly’s law reforms committee tasked with reviewing the ‘PMS vs PAS case’, said the KP government would also approach the federal government to change this formula.

She said the government would resolve all issues of its officers.

The minister said the provincial government has taken up several steps to remove sense of deprivation among the provincial bureaucracy.

She said the provincial bureaucracy was the most important force at the disposal of the provincial government.

Mrs. Tahirkheli said instead of civil servants agitating for their rights, politicians should have raised their voices for them.

Provincial finance minister Muzafar Said, who was also in attendance, assured officials that the government would always stand by the provincial bureaucracy.

He said the officers’ stand regarding their rights was right and therefore, the government would not leave them alone.

Another speaker, ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak, said his party supported the provincial bureaucracy’s struggle for rights.

He said the provincial assembly was the custodian of the provincial civil service under Article 240-B of the Constitution and that the longstanding issues of provincial officers were a question mark on the performance of the provincial legislature.

Mr. Babak said the Constitution had empowered the assembly but the powers were not being exercised.

The ANP leader said the provincial officers had staged many protests for rights during the last two and a half years and the government, which was fully empowered to resolve their issues, was doing nothing to address their problems.

He said the provincial government was fully committed to empowering the provincial police chief by granting him operational, administrative and financial powers but he didn’t understand why it was not doing the same when it came to the heads of all other provincial departments.

Mr. Babak said the provincial officer’s struggle for rights had sensitised the people from other walks of life to their legal and constitutional rights.

PML-N lawmaker from Kohistan district Abdul Sattar Khan demanded the creation of Zone–VI under the KP Public Service Commission for the underdeveloped parts of the province.

He said the provincial bureaucracy needed to improve its functioning for better service of the people.

PCS Officers Association chairman Syed Alamgir Shah said the ‘bottom-up, open and transparent’ system of government was very imperative in contrast to ‘top-down and closed’ system.

He said the government employees needed to turn themselves into the change agents, while the people also expected them to be so. Mr. Shah urged officials not to ignore those who they were supposed to serve besides, being ‘part of the solution and not problem’.

PCS Officers Association coordinator Fahd Ikram Qazi briefed participants about the issues of the provincial bureaucracy and their possible solutions.

Published in Dawn January 21st, 2017