No pre-polls reshuffle in Lahore corporation

LAHORE: The caretaker government, while adopting an aggressive approach towards reshuffling bureaucrats, has not transferred any of Lahore Metropolitan Corporation official having strong political connections.

The Corporation is serving the provincial metropolis under Lord Mayor Col (retd) Mubashar Javed, who is a political worker of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, while most of its senior officials also enjoy political backing.

A senior official said though massive changes in bureaucracy and police had taken place in Punjab and even SHOs and Moharars of every police station were reshuffled, all key officials in the corporation, who directly deal with many public development projects and every day affairs in the city, are still in position to influence the coming polls.

The provincial government has already capped the release of funds for any new public sector projects in constituencies such as road construction, sewerage lines and etc but there are reports that development works are being carried out in certain constituencies.

Chief Officer Sardar Naseer Ahmed, who heads the corporation and oversees five Metropolitan Officers (MOs) --- Infrastructure, Services, Finance, Planning and Regulation ---, said that so far there is no policy of reshuffling of the officers. He said in case officials are transferred, the political setup such as Lord Mayor, Deputy Mayors and Chairmen will remain the same and they will continue supporting their party.

Secretary Local Government Arif Anwar Baloch said a meeting is scheduled to take place in a day or two to decide the fate of the corporation. He said the department will follow the directions from the Local Government minister who will head the meeting.