Govt to induct PMS/PCS officers into 729 PAS posts

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to open 729 posts of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) for promotions and induction of Provincial Management Services (PMS)/ Provincial Civil Services (PCS) officers of all provinces.
Officials said that the government has also decided to induct 51 BS-19 officers of PMS and PCS into PAS against the cadre strength of Service in the federal secretariat.
Overall, the government has decided to open 729 posts of PAS for promotions and induction of PMS)/ PCS officers of all provinces.
Officials said that a post sharing formula was decided between the federation and the provinces in 1993 and the percentages therein were applied to the full cadre strength of the provinces.
This application of percentages to the 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, officials added.
Officials further said that 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 the 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 the 1993 formula.
After deduction of the 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 1,061 from 1,739 in BS-17 to BS-20, they stated.
This rationalisation 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 leverage of 678 posts, deducted from PAS Cadre, which can be utilised for promotions of Provincial Services Officers, they also stated.
Further, in addition to the above 678 seats, the federal government has decided to induct 51 BS-19 officers of PMS and PCS into PAS against the cadre strength of Service in the federal secretariat.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Establishment Mohammad Shehzad Arbab also stated that recent changes in the cadre schedule of PAS were made, keeping in view the unwieldy cadre strength of the service, and it is an attempt to rationalise the cadre strength in line with the available officers.