Departmental inaction: Six departments run by adhoc heads

‘Many federal govt employees reluctant to join Punjab’.

LAHORE:

Six key positions in the provincial administration are technically vacant.

TEVTA chairman Saeed Alvi was let go in November over performance concerns. Mines and Mineral Department secretary Shahid Mehmood continues to hold the additional charge of TEVTA.

Last January, Umer Rasool was removed from the post of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general on charges of corruption and abuse of authority. Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) director general Abdul Jabbar Shaheen was then given the additional charge of LDA director general which he holds till today.

Dr Pervaiz Ahmed, project director of the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses was transferred and posted as the secretary of the Literacy and Non-formal Education Department in November last year. However, Dr Ahmed continues to hold charge of his former post. The Punjab government removed Muhammad Aslam, the director general of the Public Relations Department over alleged performance issued in October 2011. Tahir Raza Hamdani, the Information Department additional secretary, was assigned Hamdani’s post in addition to his regular duties.

The post of additional chief secretary became vacant during the first week of January when Nadeem Hussan Asif was posted as principal secretary to the chief minister (replacing Dr Tauqir Ahmed Shah who went on a holiday).  The post was given to Services and General Administration (S&GAD) secretary Jalal Sikander Sultan Raja as an additional charge.

The post of Punjab Privatisation Board chairman also has an ad hoc incumbent.

An official of the S&GAD said no policy decision was being taken in these departments as the officers holding additional charge were only looking after day-to-day work.

A senior official of the S&GAD, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the provincial government was facing a shortage of eligible officers partly because some officers serving in Islamabad were reluctant to work in the Punjab. Jalal Sikander Sultan Raja was not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2012.