ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: Eight months after devolution, employees of the department of archaeology and museums have an uncertain future on the job.

As many as 750 employees transferred to the provinces have lost benefits, seen cuts in salaries, have been denied promotions and are without offices to perform their duties.

“Worst yet is that provinces do not induct them because there are seniority clashes and only a few seats/posts. And a provincial officer is given preference over an official from the federal list,” said an official with the department, elaborating how the federal staff had been pushed to the back.

“In fact, they use the terms ‘devolved staff’ for all the transferred employees,” said the official, explaining how staff had reported some serious experiences of discriminations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mostly and then in Punjab.

According to the department, the fight was on for the seat of director archaeology in Lahore lying vacant since last month and the department of archaeology Punjab had been indecisive who to promote out of the federal or the provincial list.

In most cases, provinces had clearly declined to induct the federal staff and accepted them on deputation instead. But at the same time, provincial governments had also denied the new work force the 10 per cent deputation allowance since devolution.

LIBRARY: The fight to obtain control over subjects of the federal list (museums and libraries) was still on with provinces pushing for control over all items over historical significance that fell in their jurisdiction.

Recently, the department of archaeology Sindh was pushing for control over a library in Karachi and its treasure that was the property of the head office in Islamabad.

Known as the exploration and excavation branch Karachi, the library was home to over 100,000 rare and pre-partition books from across the country.

According to DOAM, no conservation efforts had been made by the provinces in the last eight months.

The same was the case with Punjab. An official with the department of archaeology in Lahore requesting anonymity said there was too much work inside Lahore for the department to focus attention elsewhere.