Restrictions on air space to continue till Indian elections, says Pak minister

LAHORE: Pakistan will review re-opening of its airspace for Indian flights on May 15 amid heightened Indo-pak military tensions, a civil aviation official said Sunday, but a senior minister indicated that the status quo will remain till the elections are over in India.

Pakistan fully closed its airspace after an Indian Air Force strike on a terror camp in Balakot on February 26. However, Pakistan on March 27, opened its airspace for all flights except for New Delhi, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. “The Pakistani government will decide whether to lift or not its airspace ban for the Indian flights on May 15,” Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson Mujtaba Baig told PTI on Sunday.

During the May 15 meeting, the officials and ministers of all ministries concerned will participate and a decision will be taken about lifting of ban or not on the Pakistani airspace ‘operational and overflying’ for India. “The decision will be notified any time on May 15,” Baig said.

However, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s close aide and federal science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry doesn’t see any change in the status quo till conclusion of Lok Sabha polls.

“Status quo will remain till the elections are over in India. I don’t see any improvement in relations between Pakistan and India till the elections are over and a new government is installed. The ban on airspace by each other I think will also continue till Indian polls,” Chaudhry told PTI. NEW DELHI: Nearly 30,000 serving and retired central paramilitary forces personnel have signed an online petition on change.org asking the government to implement the Non-functional Financial Upgrade (NFFU). The petition was created on the website in the first week of May.

The NFFU is a compensatory mechanism to make up for slow promotional avenues especially in the paramilitary forces. It is linked to the faster promotional avenues available for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

To compensate for slow promotions under NFFU, whenever an IAS officer gets empanelled for a particular appointment at the Centre, all other Organized Group A service officers are also upgraded to the same level two years from the date of empanelment on a non-functional level basis in terms of money and perks

IAS officers get promoted the fastest. For instance, a 1996 batch officer of an Organized Group A service like the Indian Postal Service is empanelled as Joint Secretary at the same time as a 1998 batch IAS officer. In 2006, the Sixth Pay Commission recognised the slow promotions and recommended the NFFU.

Paramilitary officers often have to wait for years to get promoted. For instance, promotion from the rank of assistant commandant to deputy commandant takes a decade and a half.

Other services such as the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Audit and Accounts Service are covered under NFFU.

Over a decade after the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, paramilitary forces are yet to get the NFFU. The Delhi high court in 2015 and the Supreme Court in February ruled in its favour overruling the Centre that had argued against the NFFU.

The Centre has now appointed a high-level committee to examine the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission regarding the NFFU. “Through the committee, the government wants a fresh look at recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission whereas the issue of the NFFU relates to the Sixth Pay Commission. We, in the forces, are not clear why the committee was formed and what this would achieve?” said a serving officer.

Officials said a part of the Centre’s reluctance to implement the NFFU for paramilitary forces relates to nominating them forces as Organised Group A services and therefore to postings and career options of the IPS officers. A certain number of positions in all five paramilitary forces are reserved for IPS officers.

“As soon as a service like the paramilitary is designated as Group A service, most of the ranks have to be filled by cadre officers, which will adversely affect the IPS officers,” said another serving officer.

There are 25 Deputy Inspector General rank Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers waiting for promotions to the next Inspector General (IG) level. But only 50% of the posts of the IG rank of the total 46 are available for the officers of CRPF.

“If these [25] officers are promoted to the next rank on merit, there would be promotional avenues for officers in the lower ranks – i.e commandants and deputy Commandants,” said V P S Pawar, a retired CRPF officer, explaining the stagnation and why the NFFU was being denied.

Home ministry officials refused to react to reports of unhappiness within the forces or the online petition.