President AOAF Asks Provincial Finance Minister to Halt the Salaries of Federal Civil Servants

The President of the Association of Administrative Federalism, Pakistan, Mr. Noman Wazir, has written a letter to the KPK finance minister to stop providing salaries to PAS and PSP officers in the Province. He has contended in the letter that federal employees can not be paid from the provincial consolidated fund according to article 121 of the constitution. Federal employees can only be paid from the Federal consolidated fund according to article 81 of the constitution. He has further stated that the AOAF has already filed a couple of representations to the provincial accountant general and national auditor general. He further says that the provincial accountant general, a federal civil servant and who is the custodian of the provincial kitty, can not also withdraw salary from the provincial consolidated fund. He says that the withdrawal of provincial salary by the provincial accountant general is the biggest administrative joke of the governance system in Pakistan.https://republicpolicy.com/aoaf-rejects-the-postings-of-pas-and-psp-officers-on-provincial-posts-wazir/

He has further stated that federal employees can not be positioned as drawing and disbursing officers in the provinces. He says that provincial financial accountability mechanisms can not hold federal officers accountable, including the legislative public accounts committee. He asks how it is possible that Province can not hold the federal officers accountable even for spending provincial money. He further adds that the whole financial management system is unconstitutional, illegal, and against the canons of fiscal federalism.

He further states that the Association of Administrative Federalism is fully aware of the country’s worsening economic conditions and cannot possibly imagine that provinces will be unfazed by it.

The letter contains as following;

Let us assure you that our Association shares your concern. Being sons of the soil, the Provincial Civil Servants have never shied away from what is in the best interest of the Province. History is witness to the fact that the fraternity is always in the vanguard to safeguard the interest of the Province. The fraternity voluntarily opted for the contributory pension fund, offered five (05) days’ salary to the flood affectees, froze the executive allowance, and willingly accepted the cut on POL.

However, it is pertinent to mention here that the Province has been incurring exponential amounts of liabilities, in terms of pay, TA/DA, and other perks and privileges, due to accommodating the unconstitutionally and illegally recruited employees of the federal govt, PAS/PSP/PAAS on posts connected with the affairs of a province according to article 240 (b) of the constitution.

Therefore, the Association requests your good self in the best interest of the Province and its people to ask the Federal government to pay for its employees from the federal consolidated fund. If they can’t, then the federal employees may please be repatriated to the Establishment division Islamabad to stop further draining of the provincial resources.https://republicpolicy.com/appointment-of-chief-secretary-ig-punjab-unconstitutional-president-aoaf/