LAHORE - The Punjab government has finalised the report of the committee constituted to deliberate on the demands of the PCS/PMS officers, while the provincial officers are deeming it yet another DMG-ised effort at perpetuating the status quo, which has been so despite the fact that the rights of the provincial service have been voiced repeatedly at the highest house of the province. On the other hand, the PCS Officers Welfare Association has maintained that its representatives were not shown the report prior to its submission with the Punjab Assembly Secretariat, and there are quite a few omissions, distortion of facts and misrepresentations in the report. The 'lop-sided committee - out of six members two were PCS officer - was constituted by the Chief Secretary, and chaired by Additional CS Sami Saeed and met twice 'to examine the demands of the PCS/PMS officers and recommend a viable and a futuristic way out. Members of the committee included Secretary Services and General Administration Department Sikandar Sultan Raja, Secretary (Regulations), S&GAD M Ilyas, Additional Secretary Finance Dept Ambreen Raza, Deputy Secy S&GAD Silwat Saeed and President PCS Officers Association Rai Manzoor Hussain Nasir. Manzoor Nasir, in his briefing to the committee, maintained that unfortunately, the service structure of the provincial Civil Service in the Punjab was fraught with slow career progression and adverse service prospects, since the officers have to wait for a long period in one grade despite the availability of vacant posts of their share, and ultimately, they are not posted against responsible positions. He also mentioned that the seat sharing formula between the DMG and PMS officers in the provinces was devised in Inter Provincial Coordination Committee in 1993 by a caretaker govt, which was not mandated to do so. The IPCC meeting was attended the DMG Officers sans PCS officers representation. Resultantly, the DMG officers got a lions share of the senior posts in the provinces. Manzoor Nasir considers a part of the report a case misrepresentation in which he had been quoted to have requested that the IPCCs seat-sharing formula be made part of the EstaCode in the Punjab as in other provinces. He averred that how could he say so since the IPCC meeting did not have any legal status. He also demanded that the discriminatory provisions of minimum length of service as under the Punjab Provincial Management Service Rules, 2004 and the Punjab Civil Servants (Minimum Length of Service for Promotion) Rules, 2003 should also be abolished since these create impediments in already much-delayed promotions of the PMS Officers. Secondly, for promotions, as successful completion of the Senior Management Course and National Management Course is a pre-requisite for promotion to posts of BS-20 and BS-21 respectively, Manzoor was of the considered opinion that the officers of the PMS cadre do not get promoted to BS-20 and BS-21 as they are not nominated for these courses by the Establishment Division despite repeated requests by the Punjab government. He is quoted to have demanded that the training capacity of the provincial government should be enhanced and the MPDD must be asked to arrange trainings of these officers instead of Federal Government. He also asked for the Provincial Selection Board meetings be held at the earliest for promotions. He also pointed out that senior PCS Officers were not being posted on compatible posts since currently not a single PCS Officer was working as Commissioner or Administrative Secretary. He demanded posting of senior PCS officers against commensurate responsible posts according to their cadre strength, and the seniority list of PMS officers should be notified. In response to these demands, the committee maintained that the minimum length of service as provided under the PMS Rules (2004) and the PCS (minimum length of service for promotion) Rules should remain intact or else the government would compromise on quality of its premier civil service available to implement its policies. The committee further considered the fact that the provision of mandatory trainings of the SMC and NMC deny the eligible officers of the PMS cadre the opportunity for promotions for a long period and thus they are forced to languish in one grade. However, the committee observed that the demand by the PCS/PMS officers to waive off the mandatory condition of SMC/NMC could not be acceded to as these trainings were useful to officer in various ways. To resolve this, the committee threw the ball in DMGs court asking the Secretary Services to see Secretary Establishment so as to convince him for arranging special training sessions for PMS officers. Secondly, if this could not be arranged, then special training programmes should be arranged in line with the NMC/SMC by the provincial government in the MPDD. The report mentioned that 12 District Coordination Officers and three Administrative Secretaries in the province belong to the PMS Cadre. However, it was emphasised that the PMS officers must be given more opportunities to serve as Commissioners and Secretaries in the provincial government. Lastly, the committee 'felt that the seniority list of PMS officers in BS-17 should be notified on regular basis after fulfilling the requisite formalities. However, Manzoor Nasir was of the view that this was another case of lip-service and stale bread in a fresh wrap, since the recommendations would not be actualised since the DMG officers were still holding the fort and ultimately they would decided the postings, promotions and end of discrimination at every level.