Peshawar   -  Many officials of the provincial bureaucracy have been serving in one department for a long time in violation of the set rules.

Sources in the provincial bureaucracy told The Nation that according to the provincial service rules, an official must be transferred after he or she completes two-year service in one department. It means an official cannot stay in the same department where he or she has served for two years. 

An official from the provincial bureaucracy told this correspondent that most of the senior officials, like that of Provincial Management Service (PMS), continue to stay in the departments for years in violation of the rules. 

“If an official serves one department for two years and he is then promoted to next pay scale, he or she can complete another two years in the same department. But otherwise, the officials need to be transferred after two years in one department,” he added.

Normally, the KP Establishment Department issues transfer orders for the senior officers like PMS and others, while for the clerical employees, there is an “establishment” wing inside their own departments which take care of their issues. 

“Those with strong backing can secure posting in a department they wish and can stay there for many years, thus violating ‘the two-year’ rule of the provincial government,” the official said.

In the KP Home Department alone, there are several senior officials posted for even three and more years. The sources said that a section officer there had been initially appointed in the government sector as a clerk, and has now reached the post of section officer and has been posted in the arms section of the Home Department for the last several years. Besides him, several more officials of Home Department have not been transferred and they are serving for the last more than three or even more years in the department. Even secretary home has also been serving in the department for around three years or more.  

Another senior official, requesting anonymity, said that “many want their posting in the provincial Home Department, but only those having a strong backing can secure a place there.” He said that besides Home Department, there were other departments where officials had not been transferred and they continued to serve there for many years.

This scribe made repeated attempts on the cell-phone of KP’s Secretary Establishment Mutahir Zeb and also sent him messages on his WhatsApp number. However, he neither picked the calls, nor replied to the messages. 

Meanwhile, KP Chief Minister’s Advisor on Information Kamran Bangash told The Nation that on the directive of the KP Chief Minister recently, the provincial government had started working on the transfer plan but that the portfolio was so much huge that it required time. 

He said that after the CM issued a directive about a month ago, the departments were now working on the matter and some officials had already been transferred while others would also be transferred soon.