LAHORE – The incumbent premier Imran Khan is under severe pressure even in the first month of his government as the bureaucrats are ramping up pressure owing to the rotation policy, seeking immunity from transfers.
Seasoned journalist, Ansar Abbasi has claimed that some of the officials of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government are pressing the premier that he should brush aside his policy of transferring bureaucrats to benefit the influential bureaucrats.
“It is expected that Imran Khan might summon the secretary establishment division soon to scrap the transfer orders,” Abbasi said while citing a source close to the PM House.
The bureaucrats are wary of the fact that if PTI budges under the awe of influentials, then Imran Khan’s vision of making the bureaucracy apolitical would not be materialized.
After assuming charge, the PM had amended the rotation policy of civil servants, directing the establishment division to implement the policy in letter and spirit, without granting anyone immunity.
Premier Imran Khan had made an amendment that the officers of Grade 21 or lesser who have served for 10 years either in Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) or Police Service Pakistan (PSP) should serve at the centre or be transferred to other provinces in public interest.
Extra Ordinary Leave, earned leaves, study leaves, OSD, training, deputation and posting outside Pakistan would not be incorporated in the consecutive 10-year period served by a civil servant and would not be considered a break as per the amendment.
Under the policy, the establishment division identified a few officials and transferred them; a few of them have joined the duties while others are reluctant who are trying to convince the premier and concerned quarters for immunity.
If the influentials become successful in their lobbying, the policy would fail in the same manner as done in the past.
After so many years, Imran Khan made a blunt decision of transferring the influential PSP and PAS officers and concerns were raised whether the incumbent premier would implement his policy or not, however, the chief executive is now facing pressure from the bureaucratic bigwigs.
In the last three decades, the respective regimes had formulated its related routine policy for the bureaucrats, but the policy could not be implemented.
Each time, the implementation of these policies were thwarted within weeks, because exceptions were made under pressure from influential bureaucrats, reluctant to leave their province of choice.
In a recent story, The News had cited a senior bureaucrat saying that, by launching the rotation policy, the Imran Khan government had put its authority to the test.
The coming few weeks and months would determine whether or not Khan is any different to his predecessors, he had said.
In the last ten years, PPP and PML-N did not make any serious efforts to exchange government employees between the provinces and the centre.
However, the governments of Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto introduced a rotation policy, but none of them could be implemented, because of the very influential bureaucrats.
Interestingly, every government in the past determined to follow the policy as it is but did not do this and the matter was put on the back burner. PAS and PSP are included in the Pakistan services and the posts are distributed in the federal and provincial governments.
However, the bureaucrats prefer to work in their considered provinces and most of them belong to Punjab.
