ISLAMABAD: The first week of the year was marked by protests and pen-down strikes by officials of several federal government offices located not only in the capital but in other cities as well.

The employees of Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) held demonstrations across the country for not being paid salaries for the last three months.

PCSIR is an allied department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and senior officials of the ministry have said the finance ministry is likely to release the salary amount on Tuesday (today).

Besides this, the most serious protest was staged by government officers in the federal secretariat, which led to a delay of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) meeting up to Wednesday.

Officers seek executive allowance for all

The strike was led by the officers of the Planning Commission (grade 17-22 officers) who gathered at the P-Block Pak Secretariat and staged a rally up to the Q-Block against discrimination being meted out in the executive allowance.

Since almost all officers of the Planning Commission are part of the pen-down strike, several official meetings have been suspended and it seems unlikely that the situation will change on Tuesday (today) as the same is planned.

Addressing the protesting officers, Manan Khan, Abdul Sattar and Jabbar Alam said the issue had remained unresolved since July last year.

“We have unanimously resolved to observe a full pen-down strike from January 2023 till the issuance ofnotification committedby the Finance Division to end this discrimination,” the speakers said.

The officers announced that all meetings including those of the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP), Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) would be boycotted.

The distortion was created on July 19, 2022, after the federal cabinet, decided to grant an executive allowance equivalent to 150pc of the basic to officers of grade 17-22 serving in the secretariat.

However on July 17, 2022, a notification from the finance ministry was issued stating that this facility will only be given to the officers of Office Management Group (OMG) and Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) group.

The grant was restricted to officers of other groups such as the economist group besides officers in the ministries of foreign affairs and information.

This decision led to series of protests for almost six months until assurances were given to officials by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, stating that all matters would be resolved by Dec 14, 2022.

Talking to Dawn, one of the protesting officers said the top finance managers of the country must have assumed that the protest would finish by the end of December.

Some of the officials suggested that the finance ministry could reverse the allowance or propose a reduction from 150pc to 100pc for officers of PAS and OMG and grant a 100pc allowance to officers belonging to the other groups.

“There are a total of 1,800 officers from grade 17 to 22 in the secretariat; some 1,200 have been granted 150pc increase and only 600 remain,” said another officer.

“If all officers are given a 150pc raise, the total annual impact will be Rs1.3 billion – but there will be no impact on the national kitty if the raise is reduced to 100pc for all,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2023