PTDC employees to be relieved through golden handshake scheme

Islamabad : The future of employees both working on regular basis and on contract in Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) looks bleak and not safe at all as the federal government has decided to axe them by implementing golden handshake scheme in the department.Well informed credible source told ‘The News’ here Thursday that the federal government is serious to implement this scheme in near future certainly from April, this year. Over 450 employees are working on regular basis out of total 650. Under the plan as many as 140 regular employees would be relieved from their services. Remaining employees both regular and working on contractual basis would be accommodated in provincial tourism departments according to the plan. Working on this, move has been started and is very likely to be completed within a month.Apart from it, the government fully intends to take over the charge all motels from PTDC and handover the same to provincial tourism department of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab Tourism. In all 40 motels are at the charge of PTDC in different parts of Punjab and KP. But the same would now be transferred to KP and the Punjab Tourism Department. Similarly, the transfer of all properties/assets of PTDC to provincial tourism departments is also in the pipeline of the government’s plan.According to the sources, the total value of PTDC assets is valued up to Rs200 billion.The reason behind implementing handshake scheme for government PTDC stands devolved under 18th amendment made during PPP led allied government and tourism since then become a provincial subject.According to information revealed by this highly placed source, even the previous government of PML-N had principally decided to relieve employees of PTDC from their services through golden handshake scheme, however, it was not enforced practically as the then PTDC managing director, Ch Abdul Ghafoor Khan not only made strenuous efforts to convince the PML-N government but he even approached Islamabad High Court to challenge the devolution of PTDC on the grounds that this department is corporation which could be declared devolved through 18th amendment. Moreover, proceedings on the case is not over. Till the verdict by IHC on this case is not given, no plan or decisions could be enforced or taken under the law, the sources argued.When the former chief of PTDC, Ghafoor Khan was approached for comments, he agreed with the sources that the implementation of handshake scheme in PTDC was very much on the cards of the PML-N government. In the capacity of Managing Director, I during negotiations with then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif and other relevant authorities succeeded to convince them from enforcing the plan of handshake scheme in the best interest of the employees of my department. However, he refused to give remarks about the same decision of the present government to enforce handshake scheme in PTDC and transfer all its assets to the provincial government.However, when this correspondent approached official spokesman, Mukhtar Ahmed, assistant manager, Media, he while expressing his reservations to comment on the subject asked to get statement from General Manager PTDC, Ali Akbar who he said is the right official to say on the issue.

from The News International - Islamabad https://ift.tt/2XxuBrA