Promotion to BS-18 PCS officers refuse to shun ‘DMG phobia’
By Intikhab Hanif
03 / 08 / 2009
LAHORE, Aug 2: The BS-17 PCS officers apprehend they are not being promoted to BS-18 to fill in assistant commissioners’ slots after the planned repeal of the existing local government system and revival of the executive magistracy in Punjab to the advantage of District Management Group officers.
“We were denied promotion to BS-18 in the recently held selection board meeting under the pretext of lack of required training which was never imparted to us despite our demand. Now it has transpired that this has been done to keep us in BS-17 for the posts of assistant commissioners in the new set up,” claimed a PCS officer while talking to Dawn on Sunday.
Requesting anonymity, many PCS officers said the proposed plan would rob them of their legal right to promotion. This was being done to benefit District Management Group (DMG) officers, they claimed.
The PCS Officers Welfare Association, in the meantime, strongly opposed the alleged move of denying promotions to grade 17 PCS officers in view of the proposed restoration of the magistracy system.
No senior official concerned of the Punjab government was available for comments despite repeated attempts.
The PCS officers explained that after the introduction of the existing devolution system, 517 posts of assistant commissioners and extra-assistant commissioners (magistrates) were abolished, introducing new posts of deputy district officers (Revenue) (DDOR) etc.
And to fill the extra posts, DMG officers were promoted against them. The PSS officers also got their share. But PCS officers could not be promoted due to the fact that mandatory training was not imparted to them. Seniority dispute was also cited as another reason for denying them the promotion.
In order to fill the gap, more and more officers of DMG and other services like Income Tax, Customs, Railways, Postal etc were brought to Punjab.
The officers said under the previous system, PCS officers would be posted as assistant commissioners after notional promotion to BS-18.Those in Bs-17 would be posted as magistrates.
Now, they claimed, the government intended to create the posts of both executive magistrates and assistant commissioners in BS-17. Under the proposed plan they would require 236 assistant commissioners and more than 400 magis trates, all in BS-17.
They said after the recent promotion of 52 PCS officers to BS-19 there were nearly 95 posts lying vacant in BS-18. But, they regretted, the promotions were being denied to them only to allow the DMG officers keep their dominance over seats in BS-18.
“Keeping us in BS-17 would mean our demotion instead of due promotion which is a great injustice,” an officer said. This was also against the rules under which 60 per cent quota was allocated for the PCS officers in BS-18 posts.
The officers claimed that as per the new proposed system, the posts in various grades, particularly in BS-18, would be abolished. This would also reduce the seat quota for the DMG BS-18 officers, forcing their return to the federal government. “The DMG bureaucracy does not want this. And it is planning to deny us our promotion to keep their junior colleagues here,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the Punjab government is planning to recreate the 354 abolished BS-17 posts under the deputation, leave reserve and training heads for making arrangements for the return of executive magistracy system.
The plan was to fill such posts by promoting tehsildars and superintendents.