ISLAMABAD: The governance in Punjab has gone to the dogs as the provincial government has made innumerable changes in the bureaucracy at the whims and wishes of ruling party MPAs to ensure their presence in the provincial assembly for the smooth passage of budget.
Informed sources said the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar recently held several meetings with PTI MPAs from different divisions to persuade them to ensure their presence in the budget session. In return what the chief minister offered in these “divisional meetings” of PTI MPAs, was a loud and clear message for the bureaucracy -“keep MPAs Happy”- or else be prepared to become a rolling stone or OSD.
A PTI official, who is very active in Punjab, said on the condition of anonymity that the impression of wholesale transfers on the wishes of MPS is not correct as the transfers did not happen at a large scale, adding the chief minister does not act blindly to fulfil his MPs’ demands. However, he said if some transfers took place they were done after checking the competence, experience and credibility of the officer, adding the chief minister wants to keep the right person in the right job. He opined it was the ruling party’s policy that if an officer does not show performance he will be removed.
In the divisional meetings, besides the Chief Secretary, Inspector General Police, secretaries of different departments as well as commissioner and police chief of divisions concerned were made to sit to ensure the MPAs demand are immediately met. According to an official source, who attended some of these meetings, “Punjab Assembly budget session served as a clearance sale of transfers.” He added he never witnessed such a worst possible politicisation of civil service and bureaucracy in his entire career. Sources said the government found an easy modality of making the civil servants rolling stone to get the budget passed. Gauging unrest among ruling party MPAs, the sources said, the government opted for an easy modality - give the ruling party MPAs whatever is possible without considering the merits of the demand. It is said the ruling party MPAs conveyed their unhappiness with the CM Office and the government by abstaining from the provincial assembly sessions during the recent weeks. Rattled by MPAs behaviour and having no political clout, the sources said, Chief Minister Buzdar and ministers opted for easy way out - accept all demands pertaining to transfers and postings.
It is said the chief minister convened division-wise meeting of MPAs of all divisions of Punjab including Bahawalpur, DG khan, Multan, Sahiwal, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Sargodha. The Chief Secretary, IG police and key provincial secretaries were in attendance, along with all commissioners and RPOs. Considering that the Punjab government has drastically reduced the development budget, the sources said, the development demands of constituencies of MPAs could not be accommodated. Thus, it was decided to accept demands of PTI MPAs about transfers of bureaucrats to placate the ruling party MPAs. These sources said the PTI MPAs complained that Bahawalnagar DC organised a grand sports and youth festival but no MPA of PTI was invited as chief guest and there were no pictures and posters of an important authority in the Centre and CM on the occasion. Hence, the source said, it was demanded the deputy commissioner who was appointed a few months ago be transferred and he was transferred the same evening.
Some MPAs of Khushab wanted to change the Khushab DC since he was considered too straight for their style of politics. The chief minister immediately obliged and Khushab DC, a very well reputed officer, was sent packing. These sources added that Punjab has computerised the land record in order to make it safe and empirical besides making revenue administration nonpolitical. But, the sources said some PTI MPAs wanted a say in the computerised land record too. Consequently, the project director Rao Aslam, who is a foreign qualified having experience of working with the UK government has also been removed. A senior civil servant posted in Punjab said it was a “Juma Bazar“ of politically motivated transfers and posting in the name of divisional meetings. The source said innumerable transfers of officials including XENs, Chief Officers, tehsildars, medical superintendents, DSPs wer made during the last two weeks on politically motivated demands of PTI MPAs.
Senior member of The News investigations cell Fakhar Durrani repeatedly contacted Punjab Chief Minister’s Spokesperson Shahbaz Gill to get his version but he did not attend the calls. He was also sent a text message but no response came from him. Durrani again called Punjab CM’s spokesperson at 9:30pm but he did not respond to the call. The News also contacted Provincial Minister for Information Syed Sumsam Ali Shah Bukhari, however his personal secretary said the minister is in the assembly.
The secretary told this scribe to call again after half an hour. When he was called again, the personal secretary of the minister said, “Minister sb is in a meeting with Chief Minister therefore kindly call after half an hour”. However, later when tried the mobile of the minister was switched off.
