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| Bureaucrats earn Pir Mazhar’s ire |
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Monday, October 19, 2009
Tahir Hasan Khan
Karachi
The special Sindh Assembly committee for the construction of the new Assembly building adjourned its meeting abruptly due to a strong protest by Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq over the non-cooperation of bureaucrats.
Sources said that the secretaries of three departmental — finance, planning and development, and works and services — are members of this committee, along with provincial ministers Sardar Ahmed, Pir Mazharul Haq, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Manzoor Wassan and others, while Speaker Nisar Khuhro is the chairman of the committee.
Khuhro had convened a meeting on Saturday to review the progress of the project. All ministers were present, but the meeting was not attended by any of the secretaries.Sources said that Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq lodged a strong protest against the attitude of the secretaries. Insiders claimed that the secretaries sent most junior officers to attend this high-level meeting which was participated by Chief Economist from Planning and Development and Chief Engineer from Works and Services. Serious objections were raised when a junior-most Grade 17 section officer told the participants of the meeting that he was representing his boss, the finance secretary.
Haq expressed anger over the attitude of the finance secretary and said that this was an insult to the ministers. He pointed out that the finance secretary had not attended previous meetings either.
Khuhro informed the meeting that the finance secretary had told him on the phone that he was in Islamabad to attend another meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, but education minister did not accept this excuse and Khuhro finally adjourned the meeting.
Finance Secretary Fazalullah Pechoho, a Grade 21 DMG officer, is the husband of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Dr Azra, a sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, while Special Finance Secretary Naheed Durrani is the daughter of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.
One of the participants at Saturday’s meeting told The News that everybody was shocked when Haq lost his temper. President Zardari had summoned almost all departmental secretaries, including the chief secretary, to Islamabad to brief him about the progress of mega projects assigned to their departments.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
