LAHORE: The plan to establish a regional office of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) at Multan has been deferred because of lack of funds and legal complications.

The PPSC regional office to be called ‘South Punjab Public Service Commission’ has been declared unconstitutional by legal circles in the provincial government as it could be established only after the creation of south Punjab province.

The Constitution provides for public service commissions at the federal and provincial levels only.

Officials on Wednesday said actually the idea was to establish a regional office of the PPSC in Multan which could be turned into a recruiting institution for south Punjab province.

They said the cabinet’s standing committee on finance and development had in its recent meeting deferred the plan to set up the PPSC Multan regional office till the establishment of the south Punjab mini-secretariat.

At present, the PPSC has its offices in different cities of the province, including Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Bahawalpur, which are manned by administrative staff and where only written tests of candidates from the regions are conducted. The final selection through interviews is made at the PPSC Lahore headquarters, the officials said.

They said the PPSC secretary in his briefing to the standing committee said the commission intended to set up its regional office at Multan to facilitate the recruitment process comprising written test and interview.

For this purpose, a summary to the chief minister was initiated for approval of the scheme and provision of funds amounting to Rs586.233 million through supplementary grant during the current financial year and inclusion of the scheme in the ADP-2018 and 19.

The chief minister approved the proposal of the P&D chairman allowing submission of the case to the standing committee of the cabinet on finance and development for consideration and approval.

The summary had demanded Rs50 million during the current fiscal year for the purpose so that the provincial building department could start physical works after approval of the PC-I by the competent forum.

The officials said the standing committee discussed the location, workload, need and feasibility of PPSC regional office at Multan. It said the plan was needed to be reviewed by the P&D. The utilisation and justification of construction of office viz-a-viz rented premises also needed to be assessed, it added.

They said that the committee declared that the PPSC could depute some permanent members in Multan without establishing the costly office. The regional office could be established on the pattern of the Lahore High Court regional benches, they added.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2019