GB civil servants protest ‘discrimination’

International Desk

20 Sep 2023, 13:00

The discriminatory clauses persist in Rules of Business 2009 irks civil servants belonging to Gilgit-Baltistan Civil Service as they observed a pen down strike on Sept 12 on the eve of caretaker prime minister's visit to the region.

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The members and cabinet of Gilgit-Baltistan Civil Service Association (GBCSA) managed to effect amendments to the ROB under the guidance of previous GB cabinet headed by the then chief minister khalid Khurshid Khan in June 2023 and the objectionable clause got expunged from RoB besides effecting other amendments thereto.

The section-C (18)(4) of RoB 2009 of GB restricts local cadre officers of GB from becoming Additional Chief Secretary (Dev), Home Secretary and Finance Secretary as they [shall] be reserved for the officers of the All Pakistan Unified Group (APUG). GBCSA contested this particular clause in GB-RoB saying it colonial, discriminatory and insulting not only to GB civil servants but to entire people of GB as no such clause exists in RoBs of any province including AJ&K. They added that it was made part of RoB in 2009 when GB had junior local officers but today there are BS-20 officers available to be posted against these slots.

GBCSA contended that since GB is not a constitutional province, imposing the vacancy sharing formula is illogical if not illegal. "The posting of Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police in GB by federal government is enough to represent the federation but placing so many federal officers from BPS-17 to BS-20 in GB is akin to denying the professional growth of local cadre officers of GB".

The body alleged the chief secretary recently wrote a letter to the prime minister in last July and managed to get the amendments made to RoB 2009 of GB by previous cabinet, CM and governor reversed without taking relevant legal forums on board.

The GBCSA President Mir Waqar Ahmad demanded a probe into the matter of unlawful reversal of amendments made in RoB and added that their protest to continue unabated until the responsibility is fixed. The GBCSA recently called on GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar and his cabinet and called for taking action against officials who remained instrumentals in illegal reversal of amendments made in GB RoB, 2009, reversal of posting of a non-cadre officer Rahim Gul as Secretary Local Government and to devise a transfer-posting policy to avoid quarterly posting/transfers of departmental secretaries.

GBCSA said that there is no merit-based transfer posting policy.

Secretaries of the departments are transferred on quarterly basis in GB without any policy but on refusal to comply with personal orders of chief minister and his cabinet ministers due to which entire system has been paralysed as no secretary is willing to perform in anticipation of being transferred.

Giving his stand, Chief Secretary Mohyudin Wani told The News that the local provincial secretaries of Gilgit Baltistan never observed any pen down strike on Sept 12. On that day, four local provincial secretaries were working with him, but the secretaries who issued the press releases of the strike were called by the chief minister.

Answering a question he said that he requested the governor and the chief minister to consult the Federal Ministry of Law and Justice before amending the Rule of Business. He further said that on the occasion of the prime minister's recent visit, the local secretaries requested through written application to the prime minister to resolve this issue.

The Chief Secretary further said that 17 secretaries out of 23 belong to Gilgit-Baltistan and he is a supporter of giving their rightful place to the local officers and there can be no obstacle from his side in this regard.

Source: thenews.com.pk

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