Bureaucrats pass another year of transfers

Punjab govt ignores policy of keeping officers at their posts for three years

LAHORE:

The Punjab bureaucracy remained the target of major reshuffles throughout 2021. The wave of transfers and postings in the bureaucracy, whose expanse had no precedent in the past, continued till the last week of December.

The Punjab government could not form the province of South Punjab during the year. However, the South Punjab Secretariat for the bureaucracy and police was established and empowered through an ordinance.

The South Punjab Secretariat, formerly formed to serve the Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur and Multan divisions, is now fully operational where the posts of an additional chief secretary, additional inspector general of police and secretaries of provincial departments have been created and they are enjoying autonomous powers along with their staff.

Apparently due to the government's lack of effective strategy, senior officers were transferred from one post to another two to three times during the year.

The government has also abandoned its tenure policy of keeping officers at a post for three years, drawing allegations of political considerations and favouritism in the transfers.

More than 20 officers were sent out of the province under the inter-provincial rotation policy and other decisions.

Official documents and record showed that thousands of officers of Grade 17 to Grade 22 were transferred in the province during 2021, including a chief secretary and an IG.

After remaining Chief Secretary for seven months, Jawad Rafique Malik was transferred. Federal Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal was appointed as the new chief secretary of Punjab. He has been serving for a few months, but appears to be working in uncertain circumstances while keeping a low profile.

The chairperson of the Planning and Development Board, additional chief secretary and principal secretary to the chief minister were changed twice, while the senior member of the Board of Revenue was also replaced. The services of the previous principal secretary, Tahir Khushid, were surrendered to the federal government.

More than 1,000 officials of section officer and higher ranks were transferred twice.

Additional Chief Secretary Iram Bukhari was transferred out of the province. Syed Ali Murtaza was appointed Additional Chief Secretary and Sahibzada Shehriyar Sultan Services Secretary as the new chief secretary formed his team. The secretaries for schools and higher education were changed twice.

Tahir Khurshid and Barrister Nabil Awan were also posted out of Punjab.

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Reports also surfaced of complaints of corruption a commissioner of Lahore and a local government secretary. Muhammad Asif Iqbal shuttled between Bahawalpur and Faisalabad as Commissioner.

Gujranwala Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghuman was removed from the posts of deputy commissioner of Jhelum, commissioner of Gujranwala and secretary of higher education before his reappointment.

The DC and assistant commissioner of Mandi Bahauddin were made officers on special duty (OSD) over insulting a consumer court judge.

In all, 36 DC and nine commissioners of the province were transferred thrice, while 108 additional DCs were replaced twice.

Out of the 136 assistant commissioners in the province, 100 have been replaced twice.

The bureaucratic flux was most evident in Lahore division, where seven assistant commissioners of Model Town served during the period, followed by five in Bhalwal, four each in Sargodha and Faisalabad, and three in Gujranwala.

No senior officer could complete the three-year tenure.

While two former chief secretaries refused to comment on the frequent transfers, the incumbent, Kamran Ali Afzal, said,”We have continued to work for the well-being of the officers. We have developed an open door policy. All the officers are trying to solve the public problems by holding open court daily for an hour.”

He said a mobile application had been developed to monitor he officers' performance.

"I have replaced very few officers during my tenure," he said, adding that the replacements were based on performance.

On the other hand, PML-N Punjab information secretary Azma Bukhari said the government had treated the bureaucracy badly in 2021. She said the bureaucracy was the backbone of any government, but the officers had been exploited by the government through frequent transfers.

She said non-implementation of the government's tenure policy had affected the performance of bureaucrats.

The MPA said the bureaucrats who had worked honestly under the previous government had been either sent away from the province or sidelined.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2022.