LAHORE, Oct 20: The authorities in the Punjab have prepared a comprehensive draft to plead against the new service structure manufactured by the NRB (National Reconstruction Bureau) amidst fears of its implementation despite all reservations.
The structure envisages elimination of the DMG and the PSP, and introduction of the National and Provincial Executive and District Services, besides making police a provincial subject.
“The NRB can convene a meeting anytime to finalize the plan and we have enlisted major objections to it,” sources told Dawnon Sunday, revealing that the provincial authorities had earlier managed to avert a meeting before the elections on Oct 10 through a request to President Gen Musharraf at the Governor’s House on Oct 3.
They said they had in fact feared the introduction of the system before the elections and had heaved a sigh after the president agreed to postpone the meeting on the ground that everybody was busy in elections.
“The postponement of the meeting was a relief but another meeting can be convened any time. In fact the structure is like a Sword of Democles,” a senior officer said while declaring the plan impracticable requiring a cool and calculated consideration before its implementation.
He said the NRB had sent an amended form of the structure in view of the initial objections by the Punjab but it still contained many ambiguities and flaws.
“And despite all this we have a feeling that it can be implemented in the come what may style,” he said.
The Punjab had earlier submitted a volume of objections to the new police law which were overruled. And though some of the senior officers in the Punjab did hope that this time their views would be considered, many feared the imposition of the new system.
The sources said Punjab Chief Secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa had in the initial response to the new service structure conveyed to the NRB that the federal part of it required thorough contemplation and should not, therefore, be implemented in a haste to avoid complications.
They said the chief secretary had also mentioned that it was not advisable to touch the provincial service structure as under the Constitution this could be done only by the provinces.
The sources said during the past over 10 days extensive meetings the Punjab had once again found many complications in the plan.
They said the plan was faulty in the sense that it promised young men the National Executive Service after spending 10 to 12 years in the groups considered inferior to it. It was hard to understand as to who would risk 12 years of his life to join the elite service on a chance. This was so because those failing to achieve one goal generally preferred to gain another at the very initial stage.
They said the service plan was silent on the future of the DMG officers already serving in BS-19 and those in 17 and 18 failing to clear the examination for the NES.
They said another objection was that the plan did not provide for any career planning for those joining in BS-17 and 18 in the proposed district service.