PCS Officers Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reminded Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Asad Qaiser for convening of a meeting of house committee constituted for the resolution of their issues.
In this connection, the PCS Officers Association has written a letter to the Speaker KP Assembly while the copies of the said letter have also been dispatched to Chief Secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Opposition Leader, all parliamentary leaders and Secretary Provincial Assembly.
The letter stated that more than a year has passed when the issue of PMS Officers vis-à-vis PAS was raised at a meeting with your good self and an adjournment motion to this effect was also moved in the assembly. Subsequently, the case was referred to the subject committee.
Meeting of the committee was held on 07/04/2015 wherein a technical committee was constituted which would present its findings to the subject committee within four weeks. However, it is submitted that the Provincial Assembly has yet to exercise its powers under Article 240(b) of the constitution, thus delaying justice to the premier service of this province.
It was submitted that under Article 240(b) of the 1973 Constitution, provincial assembly is the custodian of Civil Service. Civil Servants Act of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was enacted under 240(b) the same year, wherein no share has been given to the PAS.
Federal Government encroached upon the provincial domain through illegal SRO's and Apportionment formulae 1993 in sheer violation of the constitution, hence undermining the provincial assembly.
Posting of PAS officers to this province is unconstitutional, illegal, injustice to PMS Officers and the root cause of misgovernance in the province. Such encroachments ensured not just illegal posting of PAS Officers to the province, but also rapid promotion despite their meagre strength, thus blocking promotion prospects for the Provincial Civil Servants.
There are less than 100 PAS Officers serving in the province; whereas, PCS has strength of about 700 Officers. PAS officers occupy all the key provincial positions; whereas, the genuine and premier service of the province (PCS) is marginalized at the cost of promotion of an alien and illegal cadre.
All the PAS Officers (BS-17 to BS-22) posted in the province perform provincial functions, which is negation of the further autonomy granted through 18th constitutional amendment.
It is pertinent to mention that the case was once before raised in 1999. Consequently, a report of the standing committee No 28 on Services and General Administration was adopted unanimously by the Provincial Assembly on 03/07/1999. However, the same was not implemented due to non-compliance of the then Chief Secretary and Secretary Establishment - who both happened to be PAS officers.
The technical committee has had several meetings wherein the contention of this Association was accepted as legitimate. However, instead of expediting the issue, the committee procrastinated and kept postponing the meetings. Subsequently, the committee attempted to dump the case on an unjustified pretext of the same being subjudice in the Supreme Court.
It was made clear that provincial assembly has been empowered by the constitution to this effect, and that the SCP was approached by a few officers when the assembly failed to exercise its legitimate power. Besides, even the Esta Code has instructions to the respective departments for resolving the service matters, if they are subjudice. Hence, exercise of constitutional powers by the provincial legislature is not an intervention into the affairs of courts.
The Constitution of Pakistan is supreme law of the land and the interpretation of its provisions does not require explanation of subordinate laws.
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