South region’s autonomy dreams remain unfulfilled

The South Punjab Secretariat is going to celebrate its first anniversary but the plan to grant it autonomy remains unfulfilled. Despite a separate budget book being published and funds allocated, appointment of secretaries for different departments failed.

The Punjab government stands accused of backtracking on its plan for the South Secretariat’s autonomy. According to the details, in less than a year, two Additional IGs and three Additional Chief Secretaries of South Punjab have fallen victim to politics. The secretaries of these departments are still under the control of the bureaucracy of the Punjab Civil Secretariat.

Furthermore, the South Punjab Civil and Police Secretariat is still not independent in terms of departmental policy, financial and other decision-making as they have to rely on their counterparts in Punjab.

According to a notification issued in September 2020, the Additional Chief Secretary of South Punjab was given the powers of Chief Secretary and the secretaries were given the powers of Provincial Secretary.

However, the Punjab government after some rethinking issued a new notification due to which the dreams and promises of empowering the administrative secretariat of South Punjab were left crushed. The loss-bearers of this notification, the people of South Punjab, will once again be forced to travel to Lahore for necessary work.

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Currently, the officers of the South Secretariat’s departments are bound to take instructions from Chief Secretary Punjab. The only responsibility they hold is of controlling operations in their respective departments.

In this regard, Chief Secretary Punjab Jawwad Rafique Malik, talking to the Express Tribune said that the South Punjab Secretariat is independent in running its departmental affairs. The guideline policy for departments would be issued by the Punjab government but the administrative control of these departments would be with the provincial secretaries. “They control their own budget, however, the monitoring is done by the Punjab government,” he added.

As far as the police is concerned, Additional IG South Punjab Captain (Retd), Zafar Iqbal said that the appointment and transfer of DPOs regarding police matters is done from the IG’s office. However, for appointments and transfers of DSPs, they send us officers who we later post in our three divisions.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab Information Secretary Azmi Bukhari did not buy the claims of the South Secretariat’s independence.

“Even today, the people of South Punjab turn to Lahore for their essentials. South Punjab cannot become a separate province just by the publishing of a separate budget book but through it the people of South Punjab have once again been given false consolation,” said the PML-N leader.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2021.