Government Job Transfer and Posting in Pakistan — How It Works, How to Request One, and What to Watch

You have joined a government job, or you are about to, and sooner or later the same question comes up: can I be transferred, and can I ask for a transfer? A transfer can mean a move to your home district, a posting near your spouse, a promotion to a new station, or an order you did not ask for at all. Each of these works differently, and confusing one with another is how people lose money, time, and sometimes their seniority.

This guide explains transfer and posting in government service in Pakistan in plain words: the basic law, the kinds of transfer, the three-year tenure rule, how to apply for a transfer on your own request, the spouse-posting policy, what you are paid when you move, deputation to another department, and what to do when an order seems unfair. The main sources are section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, the Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 1973, and the Establishment Division's posting and transfer policy instructions. Provincial rules follow the same pattern but differ in details, so always check the rules that apply to your own department and province before you rely on a figure.

1. The Basic Rule: Transfer Is Part of the Job

The starting point is simple, and every government servant should know it. Under section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, every civil servant is liable to serve anywhere within or outside Pakistan, in any equivalent or higher post under the Federal Government, a Provincial Government, a local authority, or a corporation or body set up by any such Government. The only exception is a civil servant recruited specifically to serve in a particular area or region. And if you are required to serve in a post outside your service or cadre, your terms and conditions as to pay must not be less favourable than what you would have got if you had not been so required to serve.

Three things follow from this:

• A transfer is not a punishment. It is an ordinary incident of government service, and the courts have repeatedly said that a civil servant has no vested right to a posting at a place of his own choice, or to continue holding a particular post at a particular place. Transfer and posting are at the pleasure of the competent authority, in the public interest.
• You can be posted to a different station, a different office, or even a different department, so long as the post is equivalent or higher.
• Your pay cannot be reduced because of a transfer outside your cadre. If the new post carries lower terms, the protection in section 10 applies.

This does not mean transfers are arbitrary. The Establishment Division's policy instructions, and the rules of each department, set out how transfers should be made — tenure, notice, competent authority, and the grounds on which a request can be made. The rest of this guide explains those.

2. The Kinds of Transfer and Posting

Not every transfer is the same. Knowing which kind yours is matters, because the rules about pay, travelling allowance, and joining time depend on it.

• Transfer on administrative grounds (public interest). The department moves you because the work needs it: a vacancy at another station, a rotation after your tenure ends, a reorganisation, or a posting that comes with your promotion. This is the normal kind of transfer, and it carries the full transfer benefits.
• Transfer on promotion. When you are promoted, you are often posted to the new post at a different station. Your promotion and your posting go together, and your lien on your old post is protected while you are on probation in the new post.
• Transfer on your own request. You ask to be moved, usually to your home station, near your family, or for health reasons. This kind is granted as a favour, not as a right, and it usually does not carry transfer travelling allowance — see section 6.
• Mutual transfer. Two government servants of the same cadre and grade, serving at different stations, agree to swap. Departments commonly allow this when both agree and a post is available for each at the other's station, but it is still subject to the competent authority's approval.
• Transfer on compassionate or medical grounds. A transfer asked for because of a serious illness of the employee or a family member, the death of a spouse, or similar hardship. The spouse-posting policy gives the highest priority to requests based on serious medical problems.
• Temporary transfer or deputation. You are sent to work in another department or organisation for a fixed period, while your parent department keeps your lien. This is deputation, explained in section 7.
• Posting on first appointment. Your first posting is where your appointment letter sends you. No travelling allowance is allowed for the journey to join your first post, except in the special cases the rules name, such as an appointment outside Pakistan or in Gilgit or Chitral.

The transfer order itself should say what kind of transfer it is. If it is silent, it is ordinarily treated as a transfer on administrative grounds — but do not rely on silence. Ask your administration section to confirm, because the kind of transfer decides what you are paid.

3. The Three-Year Tenure Rule

The most useful rule to know is the normal tenure of posting. Under the Establishment Division's instructions (O.M. No. 10/30/97-R-2, dated 17 December 1999), the normal tenure of an officer on the same post is three years. A posting on the same post beyond three years requires the concurrence of the competent authority in each case. The same three-year idea applies to transfers between Pakistan and a foreign posting: a transfer abroad should normally be made only after three years.

Two practical points go with the tenure rule:

• Notice. Ordinarily, three months' notice should be given to an officer who is to be transferred. In practice this is not always possible, but a transfer ordered without notice, in the middle of a posting, is a premature transfer, and the rules treat it specially.
• Premature transfer. Orders for premature transfers in the Ministries, Divisions and Departments of the Federal Government should be referred to the Establishment Division; in autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations, to the administrative Ministry concerned. If you are transferred well before your three years are up, and no reason is recorded, you can ask — politely and in writing — what the reason is. A transfer before completion of tenure is not illegal by itself, but the authority that orders it should be the competent one, and the reason should be on record.

There is also a related rule about staying too long on one desk: an officer should not ordinarily remain on the same job or post for an unreasonably long period. Rotation is part of the system, and a long stay at one station is not a right you can insist on.

4. How to Request a Transfer — Step by Step

If you want a transfer, you apply for it. Nobody is going to guess that you want to move. Follow this sequence:

• Check that a post exists. A transfer is possible only where a post of your grade is vacant, or is about to fall vacant, at the station you want. The spouse-posting policy says this plainly: a request for posting at a different station in the same department, service or cadre may be accepted subject to availability of a post in the same BPS. Asking for a station where there is no post of your grade wastes everyone's time.
• Write the application through the proper channel. Address it to the competent authority for your post, and route it through your immediate supervisor and head of office. An application that never reaches the authority that can order the transfer is the same as no application. Keep a copy, with the date it was sent.
• State your ground clearly, in one or two sentences. "I request transfer to Lahore on medical grounds" is better than a long story. If the ground is your spouse's posting, say so and give your spouse's department, post, and station. If it is a medical ground, attach the medical certificate. If it is your home district, say so.
• Attach the proof. A spouse-posting request should carry proof of the spouse's posting. A medical request should carry a certificate from the authorised medical attendant. A request based on the death of a spouse or a family emergency should carry the relevant document. A request with no proof is easy to file away and forget.
• Wait for a decision, and follow up in writing. If months pass with no answer, send a reminder through the same channel, referring to your first application by date. Do not stop work, do not refuse your current posting, and do not leave station while you wait.
• If the request is refused, ask for the reason. A refusal is not the end of the matter. If a post later falls vacant at your station, or your circumstances change, you can apply again. If the refusal was because no post was available, that is a reason you can check — and a reason that can change.

One warning: never pay anyone, and never use a middleman, to get a transfer. A transfer obtained by payment is not a favour you can rely on, and it can be cancelled. If someone asks for money for a posting, that is a matter for the department's complaints channel, not a transaction.

5. Spouse Posting and Posting Near Family

The most commonly used transfer policy is the one about husbands and wives. The Establishment Division issued instructions in 1998 (O.M. No. 10/39/97-R-2, dated 13 May 1998, and O.M. No. 10/30/97-R-2, dated 17 December 1999) to reduce the hardship faced by married government servants posted at different stations. The Supreme Court has since described these as guidelines that the competent authority applies at its discretion, not as a right to a particular station — but they are the guidelines every department works with, and they matter.

The main points:

• Where a request is made for posting at a different station in the same department, service or cadre, it may be accepted subject to availability of a post in the same BPS.
• If two or more government servants compete for posting at the same station in the same department or unit, the one with the greater length of service may be preferred.
• A request for posting by a spouse facing serious medical problems may be given the highest priority.
• Spouses already posted at one station, including those posted on deputation beyond the prescribed maximum period, should normally not be disturbed without compelling reasons of public interest.
• Posting of a husband and wife at the same station should not be made by dislocating a government servant already serving there, unless his transfer is needed for compelling reasons of public interest or within the framework of the general posting policy.
• Government servants whose spouses are in government service may be asked to give particulars of their spouses to their controlling Ministries or Divisions at the end of every calendar year.

The policy was later extended. Unmarried female government servants may be posted at the place of residence of their parents or family. And married female government servants may be posted at the place of residence or posting of their husbands even where the husband is not in government employment — whether he works in the private sector or is unemployed (Establishment Division O.M. No. 10/30/97-R-2, dated 21 April 2006). The point is the same in each case: the hardship of a divided household is a recognised ground for a transfer request, and it should be considered on its merits, subject to the availability of a post.

Note the limit, honestly stated: the policy helps where a post is available. Where there is no post of your grade at the station you want, the department cannot create one for you. That is why step 1 in section 4 — checking that a post exists — comes first.

6. What You Are Paid When You Move: Joining Time, TA and Transfer Grant

A transfer costs money — travel, shifting a household, settling at a new station. The rules provide for this, but only in the cases they cover. The three things to know are joining time, travelling allowance, and the transfer grant.

Joining time. When a transfer involves a change of station, you are allowed joining time to travel and to join the new post. Under the Civil Service Rules, joining time is calculated subject to a maximum of thirty days: six days for preparation, plus a day for each portion of the journey as the rules prescribe (for example, one day for each 400 kilometres by rail or road, and the days actually taken for air travel). Sundays are not counted in the calculation, though they count towards the thirty-day maximum. If the new post does not involve a change of residence from one station to another, only one day is allowed. No joining time is allowed when you are transferred from one post to another in the same office establishment. Joining time counts as duty, and you are paid during it. Delay beyond the admissible joining time is treated as absence, and no pay is allowed for the period after it expires.

Travelling allowance on transfer. Travelling allowance on transfer covers the cost of transporting you and your family, the expenditure incidental to the journey, the transportation of your personal effects, and in some cases the transportation of your conveyance. It is admissible where a change of residence is involved because your headquarters has changed. A family member who follows you within six months of the transfer, or precedes you by not more than one month, is treated as accompanying you.

Transfer grant. The transfer grant is a lump sum: one month's pay for an employee with a family, and half a month's pay for an employee without a family. It is admissible only where the household establishment is actually broken up at the old station and set up at the new station, and a certificate to that effect has to be recorded on the transfer TA bill, countersigned by the controlling officer.

The own-request exception — the point most people miss. Travelling allowance may not be drawn by a civil servant on transfer unless he is transferred for the public convenience. A transfer at your own request should not be treated as a transfer for the public convenience, unless the authority sanctioning the transfer, for special reasons which should be recorded, directs otherwise. In plain words: if you asked for the transfer, you ordinarily get no transfer TA and no transfer grant, unless the sanctioning authority records special reasons for treating it as a transfer for the public convenience. Before you apply for a transfer on your own request, understand this, so that the cost of the move does not surprise you. (Some departments, in periodical transfers where an employee's request is accepted as part of a general rotation, do pay the grant — but that is the exception, and it depends on the transfer order.)

7. Deputation: Working in Another Department

Deputation is a posting outside your parent department, usually to another department, an autonomous body, a corporation, or a project. You keep your lien on your post in your parent department, and you return to it when the deputation ends.

Points worth knowing:

• Deputation is normally for three years in the first instance. Extensions are possible with the approval of the competent authority, but deputation is not meant to become permanent. If you are on deputation and it runs well beyond the normal period, ask your parent department about your return.
• While on deputation, your pay is protected: under section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, your terms and conditions as to pay must not be less favourable than what you would have had in your parent department.
• A deputationist can be repatriated to the parent department at any time. If your parent department needs you back, or the borrowing department no longer needs you, the deputation ends.
• Deputation and absorption are different. Deputation is temporary. Absorption is a permanent move into the other department's cadre, and it needs your consent and the approval of both departments. Do not treat a deputation order as an absorption, and do not assume that long deputation turns into absorption by itself.
• If your spouse is on deputation beyond the prescribed maximum period and you are both posted at one station, the spouse-posting policy says you should normally not be disturbed without compelling reasons of public interest.

If you are offered a deputation, read the order carefully: the period, the post, the pay and allowances, and who pays them. Get the order in writing before you move.

8. After the Transfer Order: Handover, Joining and Your Record

A transfer order is the beginning, not the end. What happens next matters for your pay, your seniority, and your record.

• Read the order. Note the post, the station, the date from which it takes effect, and whether it says anything about joining time or TA. If anything is unclear, ask your administration section before you act.
• Hand over charge. Hand over the charge of your old post properly, with a written handing-over note: files, cash, stores, keys, and pending work. If charge is handed over in the forenoon, joining time runs from that date; if in the afternoon, from the next day. Keep a copy of the handing-over note.
• Relieve and join. Get yourself relieved from the old post and join the new one within the joining time allowed. On joining, get your joining report signed and recorded. Your pay at the new station starts from the date you join, and your joining time counts as duty.
• Claim what is due. If transfer TA and transfer grant are admissible, submit the TA bill with the required certificate and the countersignature of the controlling officer. Do this promptly — a late claim is harder to pass, and the rules set time limits on when the transportation of personal effects must take place (not earlier than one month and not later than six months from the date you took over charge of the new post).
• Check that your record moved. Your service book, leave account, and personal file should follow you to the new office. Confirm that they have actually been sent, and that your leave balance and seniority entries are correct at the new station. Our guide on leave rules explains why the leave account matters, and our guide on probation explains what the first months at a new post involve.
• Government accommodation and allowances. If you were in government accommodation at the old station, surrender it as the rules require, and apply afresh at the new station. House rent and other station-linked allowances follow the new station, not the old one.

9. If Your Request Is Refused, or the Order Seems Unfair

A transfer order, or a refusal to transfer you, can feel unfair. There are remedies, but they are limited, and it helps to know the limits before you use them.

• Representation. You can make a representation to the authority that passed the order, or to the next higher authority, setting out the facts: your tenure, the policy that applies to you, the hardship, and any procedural point, such as the order having been passed by an authority that was not competent. Put it in writing, through the proper channel, and keep a copy.
• Service tribunal. If the order violates the rules or your terms and conditions of service, you can approach the Federal Service Tribunal or the Provincial Service Tribunal, as the case may be. A transfer made mala fide, or in violation of the rules, can be challenged there.
• The courts' usual position. The Supreme Court has said that a civil servant has no vested right to a posting at a place of his choice, that transfer is an incident of service, and that courts do not ordinarily interfere with transfer orders made in the public interest. A challenge succeeds where the order is shown to be mala fide, passed by an incompetent authority, or in clear violation of the rules — not merely because the employee prefers another station.
• What does not help. Refusing to join the new post, staying away without leave, or going to the press will not help your case, and can turn a transfer dispute into a disciplinary matter. Join first, and challenge through the proper channel afterwards, unless the order is plainly without authority.

The practical advice is simple: apply on a genuine ground, with proof, through the proper channel; accept that the decision is the competent authority's; and if you challenge it, challenge the order, not the system, with the facts and the rule in hand.

10. A Quick Checklist Before You Ask for, or Accept, a Transfer

Use this checklist every time you ask for a transfer or receive a transfer order:

• Is there a post of my grade vacant, or about to fall vacant, at the station I want?
• Which kind of transfer is this — administrative, on promotion, on my own request, mutual, or on compassionate grounds — and what does that mean for my TA and transfer grant?
• Have I completed my normal tenure of three years, or is this a premature transfer that needs the competent authority's approval?
• Have I applied in writing, through the proper channel, with the ground stated and the proof attached?
• If it is a spouse posting, is my spouse's posting proved, and is a post in my BPS available at that station?
• If the transfer is on my own request, do I understand that transfer TA and the transfer grant are ordinarily not admissible?
• Do I know my joining time, and have I arranged to hand over charge and join within it?
• Have I kept copies of the application, the transfer order, the handing-over note, and the joining report?
• Has my service book, leave account, and personal file been sent to the new office?

If the answer to any of these is no, fix it before you move. A transfer handled properly is a routine step in a career. A transfer handled carelessly can cost you money and months of record problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a government servant be transferred to any station in Pakistan?

Yes, ordinarily. Under section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, every civil servant is liable to serve anywhere within or outside Pakistan, in any equivalent or higher post. The exception is a civil servant recruited specifically to serve in a particular area or region. Your pay cannot be made less favourable because of a transfer outside your cadre.

What is the normal tenure of a posting in Pakistan?

Three years on the same post, under the Establishment Division's instructions. A posting beyond three years needs the concurrence of the competent authority in each case. Ordinarily, three months' notice should be given to an officer who is to be transferred.

How do I apply for a transfer to my home station?

Apply in writing to the competent authority through the proper channel, stating the ground and attaching proof. A transfer is possible only where a post of your grade is available at the station you want. There is no right to a transfer to a place of your choice — the decision is the competent authority's, and it depends on the availability of a post and the needs of the service.

Can my spouse and I be posted at the same station?

The Establishment Division's policy facilitates posting of husband and wife at the same station, subject to availability of a post in the same BPS. Serious medical problems get the highest priority, and spouses already posted at one station should normally not be disturbed without compelling reasons of public interest. Married female servants may be posted at their husband's place of residence even if the husband is not in government service.

Do I get travelling allowance if I ask for a transfer myself?

Ordinarily, no. Transfer TA is admissible only where the transfer is for the public convenience, and a transfer at your own request is not treated as one unless the sanctioning authority, for special reasons recorded in writing, directs otherwise. The transfer grant — one month's pay with a family, half a month's pay without — follows the same rule.

How much joining time do I get on transfer?

Joining time is calculated subject to a maximum of thirty days: six days for preparation, plus a day for each portion of the journey as the rules prescribe. If the new post involves no change of residence, only one day is allowed. Joining time counts as duty, and you are paid during it.

What is deputation, and how long does it last?

Deputation is a temporary posting to another department or organisation while you keep your lien in your parent department. It is normally for three years in the first instance, and extensions need the approval of the competent authority. Deputation is not absorption — it does not by itself make you a permanent employee of the borrowing department.

Can I challenge a transfer order?

You can make a representation to the authority that passed the order or the next higher authority, and you can approach the Service Tribunal if the order violates the rules or your terms of service. Courts ordinarily do not interfere with transfer orders, because transfer is an incident of service — a challenge succeeds where the order is mala fide, passed by an incompetent authority, or in clear violation of the rules.

Read next: Probation Period in a Government Job in Pakistan — Confirmation, Rules and What to Watch in Your First Months (https://careerinpak.com/probation-period-government-job-pakistan) · Government Job Leave Rules in Pakistan — Casual, Earned and Medical Leave Explained in Simple Words (https://careerinpak.com/government-job-leave-rules-pakistan-casual-earned-medical) · Government Pay Scales and Allowances in Pakistan — BPS, Basic Pay and Allowances Explained in Simple Words (https://careerinpak.com/government-pay-scales-allowances-pakistan) · How to Check if a Government Job Appointment Letter Is Genuine in Pakistan — Fake Appointment Letters and How to Avoid Them (https://careerinpak.com/government-job-appointment-letter-genuine-check-pakistan) · Documents for Government Jobs in Pakistan — Domicile, Degrees and Attestation: What You Need and When (https://careerinpak.com/documents-government-jobs-pakistan-domicile-degrees-attestation) · Your Name Is Not on the Merit List — What to Do Next: Waiting List, Re-applying and Preparing for the Next Attempt in Pakistan (https://careerinpak.com/merit-list-name-not-selected-next-steps-pakistan) · After the Merit List: Medical, Document Verification and Joining — What Happens Next in a Government Job in Pakistan (https://careerinpak.com/after-merit-list-medical-verification-joining-pakistan) · Latest Government Jobs in Pakistan (https://careerinpak.com/jobs)