Govt indifferent to citizens’ access to information right

The passage of Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010 is considered significant for it allowed devolution of several subjects to the provinces through abolition of Concurrent Legislative List. One of the important developments in the amendment was the acceptance of right to information of a citizen as a fundamental right. The parliament introduced Article 19A in the Constitution through which the right to information was included in the Constitution for the first time. This step was taken for the sake of introducing transparency in overall governance system.

Article 19A states: “Every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law.” Prior to this the constitution provided right to freedom of speech and expression and freedom of press through Article 19, but these are also subject to restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan; friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court. It is now binding on the provincial government to introduce such laws which provide mechanism to citizens to have access to information in government departments. However, from its attitude it is evident that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is least interested in fulfilling its constitutional obligation.

One important development in this regard is the enactment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2012, which was passed by the provincial assembly in May 2012. Through this Act the government has replaced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Ordinance 2001, which was promulgated during Pervez Musharraf’s rule.

KP reinstates 4,000 sacked employees

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has restored more than 4,000 civil servants, who were sacked by the second Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in the province after declaring them redundant, officials say.

The restoration of their services has come after the Election Commission of Pakistan’s ban on ‘all kinds of recruitments’ in the public sector, according to official documents available with Dawn.

“The provincial authorities are of the view that the decision to restore their services had been taken much before the Election Commission’s decision, banning the new recruitments,” said an official.

However, according to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Establishment Department’s appointment letter, in one particular case, the restored employee, who has been appointed against a BPS-07 post, has been informed that his appointment ‘shall be considered

New civil servants law to have huge financial impact

The decision to extend pension rights to all the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa public sector employees involved huge financial implications and the number of pensioners was expected to exceed the provisional estimates, officials said.
The provincial finance department and other relevant official quarters have been left with a huge workload to take care of in the coming months to know the exact financial impact of the move and the actual number of beneficiaries.
“The finance department does not know the actual financial impact because the decision is the result of a private member bill that the provincial assembly enacted unanimously,” said a well-placed official.
The provincial assembly enacted ‘The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2013, on January 15, last, extending the pension net to thousands of employees, who were previously covered under the provincial government’s Contributory Provident Fund Scheme.
Abdul Akbar Khan, Pakistan People’s Party parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, had moved the bill and sought extension of the right to pension and gratuity to all employees appointed in the provincial public sector entities after July 1, 2001.
He told the provincial assembly that the new legislation would benefit some 94,000 employees, who were previously covered under the contributory provident fund scheme.

KP railway staff placed under labour dept

The Pakistan Railways employees working on railway lines and stations and in factories of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will now fall under the legal jurisdiction of the provincial labour department.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had repealed on Tuesday the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, a federal law, and enacted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Payment of Wages Act, 2012, bringing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-based railway workers under the provincial labour department’s domain.
The new Act will cover ‘the payment of wages to persons employed (otherwise than in a factory) by the railway administration,’ and ‘persons employed in the factories, industrial establishments or commercial establishments under the control of the Federal government or the Provincial government, as the case may be, situated in the territorial jurisdiction of the province.’The provincial assembly repealed the old federal act (to the extent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) by using the powers vested in it under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. It was a legal obligation, which the provincial government has fulfilled, according to legal circles.
The new law enacted on Tuesday last was provided passage after the provincial assembly’s Standing Committee No 2 on Law Reforms and Control on Subordinate Legislation tabled its findings in the House and informed it that the provincial legislature
was competent to repeal the federal law in accordance with the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
Israrullah Khan Gandapur, member of the provincial assembly, who is also a member of the committee, told Dawn on Wednesday that the new law would help remove parallel legislations in the province as according to the 18th Amendment, the law relating to the payment of wages had been devolved to the provinces.
The staff of Pakistan Railways, according to the standing committee’s report, falls under two categories.
Those working in the administration or offices their wages will continue to be covered under the Civil Servants Act, 1973, while the ones working on ‘the lines’ and in factories previously covered under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, will be covered under the newly enacted provincial law.

Thousands of KP employees get right to pension

After an amendment to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Act, 1973, around 94,000 employees of the provincial government were given on Tuesday the right to pension and gratuity on retirement from service.
The provincial assembly unanimously enacted ‘the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2013,’ substituting Section 19 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Act No XVIII of 1973.
The new law will culminate the provincial government’s Contributory Provident Fund Scheme, which was introduced in 2005.
The scheme had been introduced through a legislation that withdrew the right to pension and gratuity from the provincial public sector’s thousands of employees appointed in the provincial public sector after July 1, 2001.
Appreciating the provincial assembly for providing passage to the proposed amendment, Pakistan People’s Party’s parliamentary leader Abdul Akbar said: ‘Today is a historic day as thousands of employees got their constitutional right restored with the elimination of CP Fund.’
The scheme had been introduced with an aim to control the provincial government’s growing pension bill that consumes billions of rupees every year.
It stands abolished following the enactment of the new law whose sub-section (1) of the substituted Section 19 says on retirement from service, a civil servant shall be entitled to receive such pension or gratuity as may be prescribed.
The sub-section 2 says: “In the event of death of a civil servant, whether before or after retirement, his family shall be entitled to receive such pension or gratuity, or both, as may be prescribed.”
The assembly amended the law after its standing committee No 2 on law reforms and control on subordinate legislation in its report on CPF declared it a violation of the Constitution, terming it discriminatory.
“It is pertinent to mention that this discriminatory law is only applicable to the employees of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and does not exist in the centre and other provinces,” says the standing committee’s report, which was placed before the House on Tuesday with a request to pass the draft amendment to the Civil Servants Act.
The committee submitted its findings after the House asked it on August 31, 2012, to examine the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2012. Treasury members of the provincial assembly Abdul Akbar Khan and Israrullah Gandapur had tabled the draft bill before the provincial assembly on May 1, 2012.
Both the legislatures are on the House committee that examined the draft bill and requested the assembly to enact it in the larger interest of thousands of employees and their families.
In its report, the committee noted: “The CP Fund scheme is not only discriminatory but also against the fundamental rights of individuals as outlined in the Constitution of Pakistan.” It noted further that the CPF scheme should be abolished because it was ‘full of snags as no employee has so far been allotted any CP Fund number and no account code has been given.’
“Furthermore, no specific rules have so far been framed,” according to the committee’s report that also mentioned that “there is no interest on CP Fund deductions (made from the government employees’ salaries) while the receipt is utilised for investment by the Government.” The committee informed the House that the care taker chief minister had announced the abolition of the scheme, but the move could not materialise.
The committee also lodged a complaint, in its report, against the Establishment and Finance departments, pointing out that ‘the grievances of the government servants increased’ because of them. It reported that the chief minister had directed the two departments to ‘examine the issue on priority,’ but the matter was delayed. On its recommendation, the provincial assembly also passed the proposed sub-section (5) of Section 19 of the Civil Servants Act, 2013.