Devolution of culture dept Provinces hesitant to absorb staff

ISLAMABAD, March 30: The provincial culture departments are hesitant to absorb staff from the centre that will have to be transferred to them after devolution of the Ministry of Culture, Dawn has learnt. Provinces not only had no funds to pay salaries, in fact there are no seats to accommodate officers and subordinates (gatekeepers and gardeners etc) – regular staff that would be handed over to them after devolution. As many as three deputy directors and over half a dozen assistant directors/curators are likely to end up in the surplus list. These are 18 and 17 grade government officers and included in the list of more than 850 regular employees that would be transferred to provinces. As many as 50 per cent staff have Punjab domicile followed by those from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "Punjab is also hundred per cent occupied. There is only one seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the three assistant directors with KP domicile accommodated in the centre. The only way we have been able to find room for the 50 per cent regular employees with Punjab domicile is by distributing them across the country," said an official with the Ministry of Culture, explaining how there were zero vacancies in the federal departments also. If the rules were to be followed, a director sitting in Karachi looking after archaeological heritage across Sindh and Balochistan would have to be sent to Gilgit-Baltistan where there is no office in place. "We do not even have a seat for a deputy director in GB. And there are no provisions for new seats and these people will automatically become surplus," the senior official said. The ministry had also forwarded requests for 16 more assistant directors/curators and field officers against seven seats in the National Museum Karachi, two in the exploration branch in Karachi, two in Taxila Museum and one in Hyderabad to mention some. The ministry described these additional personnel as the backbone of the departments concerned. According to the ministry, these requests had been put on hold until the dust had settled. "This entire process is causing a lot of confusion. They are already having lots of problems in figuring how to prevent regular employees from becoming extra," the official explained. While officials with the ministry were still battling to house the regular workforce likely to become surplus, the provinces have hit them with a demand to provide budget for their salaries for the next five years. "The provinces don't have the money for preservation and conservation of historical sites that will be transferred to them after devolution let alone for salaries for the hundreds of personnel that will also be handed over to them," said a senior official with the Ministry of Culture elaborating how the ministry had been hesitant to transfer properties and workforce to provinces. However, according to the official, the ministry had agreed to provide funds for salaries for only a year and that period was too cut by six months.