LAHORE: Constitutional and legal fight between the two civil services – Provincial Management Service (PMS) and Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) – is deepening with every passing day and the former has announced fighting tooth and nail to get its due share of posts in Punjab.

The PMS Association in league with the All-Pakistan Provincial Civil Services Association (APPCSA) is already in the protest mode for the past seven months to get its due share and has written letters to the President of Pakistan, Prime Minister, Secretary Establishment and the FPSC chairman demanding withdrawal of illegal and unconstitutional SRO 1046 (1) 2020, withdrawal of PAS officers from the provincial cadre posts and to protect their other rights in the civil service.

The PMSA has now begun alleging that Punjab Chief Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik is politicking to protect his PAS group officers in Punjab and keeping the PMS officers at bay. The PMS officers say the PAS officers illegally and unconstitutionally occupy provincial cadre seats and enumerate that the PAS has only 57 allocated seats but occupies 700 posts in Punjab. To make the matters worse, 450 seats are lying vacant.

The PMSA officers also became too critical of the chief secretary for meeting unelected representatives of the PMSA and publicising in the media. A tweet from the chief secretary Punjab also stated: “Chief secretary met retired and serving PMS officers, discussed provincial civil service problems, performance and capacity building and stressed that the officers should play their role in improving public service delivery. The chief secretary also assured that steps would be taken to resolve PMS officers’ promotions and postings.”

Responding to the chief secretary’s tweet, the APPCSA tweeted: “The chief secretary doesn’t like to meet the elected leadership of PMS officers and meet unknown officers to resolve PMS civil service problems. You (chief secretary) are a good person and should respond to our legal and constitutional questions. Head of an institution should not tread on the policy of politics and division.”

PMSA Punjab president Tariq Mahmood Awan said all PMS officers were upset that why the chief secretary met unelected PMS officers and ignored the elected representatives. He claimed the officers, who had gone to meet the chief secretary, stated they had gone for a routine meeting and it had nothing to do with the PMSA issues and demands.

The officers who had met the chief secretary included secretary prosecution Nadeem Sarwar, secretary archives Tahir Yousaf, secretary regulation Ahmad Kamboh and two retired officers Suhail Shahzad and Nayyar Iqbal.

The PMSA on Sunday organised its 1,000 officers’ general body meeting at a local hotel and passed a five-point resolution including transfer of the chief secretary as he had completely disappointed the PMS officers with his lethargic attitude.

PMSA president Tariq Mahmood Awan and former presidents Rai Manzoor Nasir and Naveed Shahzad Mirza said the incumbent chief secretary had proved himself the most lethargic administrator. They said the chief secretary was running the whole Punjab from his home and added that the whole governance system had been ruined. They demanded that the chief secretary should stop playing politics between his PAS cadre and the PMS civil service cadre.

The PMSA in its resolution demanded that unconstitutional provincial sub-cadre and clauses from the SRO 1046 (1) 2020, SRO 88 and 89 and CSP Rules 1954 be removed and provincial posts be restored as per the constitutional powers of the Punjab Assembly, provincial cabinet and the chief minister.

Until the decision about provincial posts, the PMS officers demand that the DMG officers should be restricted to 115 provincial sub-cadre posts – as per DMG Rules. They demand that the rule number 7.1 be implemented and DMG service be offered 57 posts and the remaining 643 posts be vacated from the “DMG occupation”.

The resolution also says that the PMS officers demand that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and the provincial cabinet should get the written agreements with the PMS officers implemented. They demanded that the S&GAD should be run by a regular minister to end the crisis-like situation in the governance system in Punjab.

“Until the implementation of PMS officers demands, the officers will work while wearing black armbands on Mondays and Fridays,” the resolution stated.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2020