GUJRAT: The officers from the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) may be posted as chief officers in the municipal corporations in place of those from the local government to improve functioning of service delivery of these corporations.

The idea to bring the PAS officers to the civic agencies as chief officers has been floated by some divisional commissioners from central Punjab, including those of Gujranwala and Faisalabad divisions; however, it is yet to materialise as further consultation is under way in this regard, said the official sources.

The municipal corporations at district headquarters level across the province are being headed by the respective deputy commissioners who had been appointed as administrators.

However, the sources said keeping in view the other administrative responsibilities of the DCs who were also heading the tehsil councils, some commissioners wanted to hire the services of some BPS-18 officers of PAS as chief officers. They added that even the commissioners had personally approached some officers of their choice, asking them to join as chief officer in the municipal corporation.

There have been two municipal corporations in Gujranwala division, namely Gujrat and Sialkot, whereas Gujranwala city has the status of a metropolitan corporation.

It is learnt that a discussion to bring PAS officers as the senior administrative officers was started to accelerate the cleanliness and beautification campaign under Clean and Green Pakistan Index (CGPI).

The Punjab government has already relegated many powers to the office of divisional commissioner by posting the civil servants of BPS-21 as commissioners in all the nine divisional headquarters of the province. Now the commissioners can post and transfer BPS-17 officers, including assistant commissioner, in the tehsils.

It is pertinent to mention that such powers had earlier been rested with the services and general administration department.

Earlier, in the local government system in the regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf, some officers belonging to the Provincial Management Service (PMS/ex-PCS) had also served as the chief officers at the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) level which was being headed by the elected tehsil nazims.

However, the Punjab Local Government Act 2019 says, “Chief Officer means an officer of the local government who is the head of the respective administration and includes a Chief Corporation Officer who shall be the head of the administration of a Metropolitan Corporation”.

An officer on a high administrative post said that though there was no provision in the Act but they followed the service rules. He said it’s on the record that the executive officers had held such positions as ‘chief officers’ of corporations in the past, adding that they would follow the previous practice and there was nothing new in it. However, he made it clear that it was just a proposal at this stage, which would be implemented after the formal approval from the government.

Another officer said the ‘chief officer’ was an administrative post and the PAS officers could hold such posts.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2020