Chitral Times Report
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Establishment, Mr. Mohammad Shehzad Arbab has stated that recent changes in cadre schedule of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) were made, keeping in view the unwieldy cadre strength of the service, and it is an attempt to rationalize the cadre strength in line with the available officers. In 1993, a post sharing formula was decided between the Federation and the provinces and the percentages therein were applied to full cadre strength of the provinces.
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This application of percentages to total number of posts intimated by the provinces took the sanctioned seats of PAS to almost 1739 in the provinces. However, the actual number of officers available for posting to provinces was not sufficient and there was a persistent shortage of PAS officers in provinces. To overcome these shortages, an exercise was started in 2019 to identify the posts where PAS officers had not been posted historically but such posts were being used for calculation of cadre strength of PAS. After identification of such posts, in consultation with provinces, it was decided that these posts should be subtracted for the purpose of application of percentages decided under 1993 formula.
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After deduction of number of seats, where PAS officers were never posted, the post sharing formula was applied on the remaining seats which brought down the cadre strength of posts in Provinces to 1061 from 1739 in BS-17 to BS-20. This rationalization of cadre strength will serve two purposes. On the one hand, it will reduce the shortages of PAS officers in provinces, while on the other hand, it has given the provinces a leverage of 678 posts, deducted from PAS Cadre, which can be utilized for promotions of Provincial Services Officers. Further, in addition to above 678 seats, the Federal Government has decided to induct 51 BS-19 officers of Provincial Management Services (PMS) and Provincial Civil Services (PCS) into Pakistan Administrative Service against the cadre strength of Service in Federal Secretariat. In summation, almost 729 posts of PAS cadre have been opened up for promotions and induction of PMS/PCS officers of all provinces.
