Govt to bifurcate South Punjab secretariat

Decision aims to de-escalate ongoing row between regions’ leaders

MULTAN:

The provincial government has decided to divide the South Punjab Civil Secretariat into two parts, based in Multan and Bahawalpur. The decision is reportedly aimed to ease tensions among politicians in the region.

However, the already deprived people of south Punjab will once again have to travel from one city to another for small tasks.

It was also decided to depute an additional chief secretary in Multan and an additional IG in Bahawalpur. Funds of Rs3 billion were available for the South Punjab Civil Secretariat. The secretariat will reportedly become operational in the first week of July.

Parliamentary Secretary for Information Nadeem Qureshi, while speaking to The Express Tribune, said that citizens were expressing displeasure with the government’s decision of division of the civil secretariat in two parts. The government decided to divide the civil secretariat to prevent the ongoing tensions among the politicians of South Punjab from escalating. On the establishment of the civil secretariat, an additional IG will sit in Bahawalpur and an additional chief secretary in Multan.

The parliamentary secretary remarked that the establishment of civil secretariat was a victory for the people of South Punjab. “We will soon make South Punjab a separate province.” The government decided earlier to set up a civil secretariat for South Punjab. “The civil secretariat will be operational from the first week of July,” he clarified.

In this regard, significant decisions are expected in the coming days. He highlighted that there were funds of Rs3 billion available for the secretariat, which would be used for the people of South Punjab. “On the other hand, once again, the deprived people of South Punjab will have to move from one city to another due to the division of the secretariat.”

Several citizens said the government should have set up a secretariat in one place. Even before that, they had to travel to the provincial capital for minor tasks. “The government should have set up a civil secretariat in the same city.”

They termed the decision of the government as a defeat especially for the members from Multan of the Punjab Assembly.

They added that the people had to face difficulties due to the ongoing political tussle among politicians resulting in splitting the secretariat into two parts.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2020.