Change of heart: How may I help you?

Insiders claim the chief minister’s secretariat is singing a new tune.

LAHORE:

A recent change in the language of directives issued by the Chief Minister’s (CM) Secretariat seems to have raised hopes among lawmakers.

About four months ago, most directives read “for consideration / appropriate action under the rules and report.” Now, however, the directives contain the language ‘CM has desired to do the needful.’ According to an estimate, the implementation of the recent directives and referrals is above 60 per cent.

According to officials, the implementation of the CM’s directives prior to October, 2011 was less than 10 per cent and the directives were used as a tool to make the parliamentarians happy for the moment.

Nadeem Hassan Asif replaced Dr Touqeer Shah as the CM’s principal secretary on January 1. Officials claim that the secretariat’s attitude had changed since then. Some say that it is this change which has made the secretariat more accommodating and welcoming towards PML-N and Unification Bloc MPAs.

However, an official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, pointed out that the goodwill of the secretariat came to the fore since PTI’s rally at Minar-i-Pakistan and Javed Hashmi’s defection.

Many secretariat officials claimed that verbal instructions had been issued by ‘high ups’ to accommodate PML-N and Unification Bloc’s lawmakers, office bearers and ticket holders.

PPP Deputy Parliamentary Leader Shaukat Mahmood Basra said after PTI’s rally the Punjab government had opened the flood gates of political bribes at the cost of public resources to accommodate PML-N MPAs who had been ignored during the past four years. After Hashmi’s defection, he said, the government was making efforts to appease them to retain their loyalty. Now all transfers, postings and development work was being carried out according to the demands of PML-N MPAs, Basra maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2012.