The Punjab government on Friday arrested over one hundred Punjab Civil Service (PCS) as well as Provincial Management Service (PMS) officers from the Punjab Civil Secretariat under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).
The males and female PCS and PMS officers had staged a peaceful demonstration inside the Punjab Civil Secretariat against the arrest of their colleague Section Officer (SO) C&W Imran Sial for distributing handbills for a March 21 strike by PCS/PMS officers against DMG establishment.
Section Officer Tania Malik, while talking to APP, said that a peon of the C&W Department was manhandled by policemen at the Revenue Department for distributing handbills inviting officers to join the March 21 strike call. The officer said that the arrests were uncalled for since the officers were holding a peaceful demonstration against the arrest of their colleague by the Punjab government.
She further said the arrests had been made for raising voice against injustice to the officers from the provincial services, adding that CSPs were not willing to accept rightful demands of PCS/PMS officers. The PMS officer said that her four female colleagues had been locked up in the Racecourse Women Police Station while 80 male officers had been taken to the Sarwar Road and Model Town police stations.
Regulation Wing SO Farooq Qamar said the arrests had been made at the behest of IGP Punjab Javed Iqbal, CCPO Aslam Tareen and DCO Lahore Ahad Cheema who were in the Civil Secretariat during the operation to arrest the officers. He claimed the CSP officers were biased and denied lawful postings to officers of the provincial services officers in Punjab, adding that PCS officers would continue their lawful struggle against the illegal hegemony of CSP officers in the administration of the province.
According to a handout, a spokesperson of the Punjab government said it had arrested some officers on charges of threatening secretariat staff, locking out offices and interference in official duty. The spokesperson maintained that some officers of the provincial services were stopped by security personnel for distributing some illegal handbills. As a result, the officers called their colleagues and threatened secretariat staff, locked their offices and made them join the protest forcibly. He said the government had taken the officers into custody and they would be proceeded against duly, adding that official work continued uninterrupted in the secretariat.