Civil servants belonging to Gilgit-Baltistan Civil Service in Pakistan recently observed a pen-down strike on the eve of the caretaker prime minister's visit to protest against discriminatory clauses persisting in Rules of Business 2009.

The members and cabinet of Gilgit-Baltistan Civil Service Association (GBCSA) managed to effect amendments to the ROB under the guidance of previous GB cabinet headed by the then chief minister khalid Khurshid Khan in June 2023 and the objectionable clause got expunged from RoB besides effecting other amendments thereto, Th News International reported.

The section-C (18)(4) of RoB 2009 of GB restricts local cadre officers of GB from becoming Additional Chief Secretary (Dev), Home Secretary and Finance Secretary as they [shall] be reserved for the officers of the All Pakistan Unified Group (APUG), the newspaper reported.

GBSA objected the clause in GB-RoB by calling it colonial, discriminatory and insulting not only to civil servants but to entire people of GB.

They added that it was made part of RoB in 2009 when GB had junior local officers but today there are BS-20 officers available to be posted against these slots.

Giving his stand, Chief Secretary Mohyudin Wani told The News that the local provincial secretaries of Gilgit Baltistan never observed any pen down strike on Sept 12.

On that day, four local provincial secretaries were working with him, but the secretaries who issued the press releases of the strike were called by the chief minister, the newspaper reported.