PCS officers stage sit-in at Civil Secretariat
By Manzoor Ali
2016-05-19
PESHAWAR: Following the two weeks long token and pen-down stril
The protesters including men and women gathered at the sprawling lawns in front of the chief secretary`s office and shouted slogans against chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan.
The sit-in started at around 10am and continued until 4pm.
The protesting officers were joined by the opposition leaders, including ANP provincial general secretary Sardar Hussain Babak, PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha, PPP lawmaker Nighat Orakzai and JUI-F spokesperson Abdul Jalil Jan, as well as finance minister Muzafar Said.
The politicians assured the protesters of their support and said they would raise the issue on the floor of the KP Assembly. The officers were also joined by protesting Information Technology Staff Association members.
Finance minister Muzafar Said asked them to go for a middle ground. However, the protesters asked him to remove the chief secretary.
Mr. Said insisted it was not his prerogative to remove the chief secretary and that he would meet them again after seeing the chief minister on the matter.
On the occasion, senior and junior officers lambasted chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan and demanded hisimmediate removal.
Muntazir Khan, a senior PCS officer, demanded the ouster of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) from the province. He said the provincial officers were not ready to back off from that stand.
The PCS officer said provincial officers were being treated in a discriminatory manner.
He wondered how many inquiries were under way against federal officers posted to the province though in one case of a provincial officer, four de novo inquiries had been launched.
Abdullah Khan Mehsud, another senior official, claimed no one in the provincial government setup was happy with the incumbent chief sec-retary.
He said the officers, who tried to be active in the provincial officers` struggle for rights, were also targeted and that inquiries had been launched against them.
The official said junior officers of the PAS were appointed to posts in the presence ofseniorofñcers.
He likened the postings of PAS ofHcerstotheprovincetotherevival of the One Unit policy of 1950, where, he said, four provinces of West Pakistan were merged into a unit to counterbalance numerical superiority of the Bengalis.
PMS of ficer Fahd Ikram Qazi said the chief secretary`s two years tenure was the darkest chapter in the history of the provincial service.He said the posting of the PAS officer to the province was illegal.
Mr. Qazi said the government`s policy of non-interference had led to the mismanagement in the province. `It is the governance crisis in the province,` he said.
A statement issued by the protesting officers said they were demanding the removal of the chief secretary, resolution of the `PMS vs. PAS case` pending with the provincial assembly, and immediate end to discrimination and victimisation of the PMS of ficers.
It said the strike would continue until all their demands were met, while a sit-in would be staged on the secretariat premises today (Thursday).
