PTI cries foul over bureaucratic reshuffle

Spokesperson Yousafzai says Qaisar filed petition against transfers taking place in K-P despite ban

PESHAWAR:

Provincial Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson Shaukat Yousafzai has said that the main responsibility of the caretaker government is to hold free and fair elections but his party is really concerned over the large-scale reshuffle of the bureaucracy.

He said that the PTI and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaisar have filed a petition against the large-scale transfers and posting.

“Recently, more than 60 officers have been reshuffled and no one knows who did it,” he said, adding that Lakki Marwat, Bannu and some other districts have been targeted in this regard.

“The caretaker government should not be a party but in this case it is acting like a party,” he said, adding that the governor had no powers to do so but still he was running the government.

Yousafzai said that the PTI launched the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ and after a few days masses would take to the roads, he maintained, adding that the PTI dissolved the assembly to pave the way for fresh elections within 90 days but it was not happening.

“Now, we have moved to the court to stop this open violation of the Constitution,” he noted.

Shaukat added that Maulana Fazlur Rehman marched against high inflation but after getting the governor’s and other seats, he forgot about inflation.

“There is still inflation in the country but his march was aimed at obtaining power in which he succeeded,” he said, adding that he was least bothered about the economic situation of the country.

PTI’s Barrister Gohar Khan told journalists that Qaisar had submitted a petition that once the assembly was dissolved, the election process would start automatically.

“We have taken the stance that on Jan 22, the provincial government banned the posting and transfers of civil servants as the provincial government has no powers to reshuffle the civil servants,” he said, adding that in the past few days, 60 officers were transferred.

The Supreme Court had already ordered that the provincial government could not transfer or post officials without the permission of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), he observed, adding that in the presence of a notification banning transfers and posting, no reshuffle could take place so they had requested the court to take notice of the situation and declare all the posting null and void.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2023.