Buzdar responsible for frequent empowering, disempowering of S Punjab Secretariat

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s assertion that the “possibility of a human error and clerical mistake cannot be ignored”, while referring to the issuance of the now-revoked notifications reversing the empowerment and relative autonomous status of the South Punjab Secretariat (SPS), runs counter to the official record.

The Punjab Rules of Business 2011 had been changed following the approval of a large number of amendments by the provincial cabinet that discussed them threadbare. The rules cannot be modified without such a sanction in black and white.

Every time Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar notified amendments in the rules or undid them, he did so only after receiving a proper, formal and well-thought-out summary from the provincial government. Strangely, the governor has now denied that his office had issued the March 29 notification that had rolled back the SPSs.

The original September 11, 2020 notification establishing the SPSs was issued after the cabinet had cleared the move and the massive amendments in the rules of business. Subsequently, this order was rescinded through the March 29 and March 30 notifications only after the cabinet had accorded approval to them.

However, the April 1 notification that had annulled these two orders was issued without the approval of the Punjab cabinet. Under an important Supreme Court judgment, the provincial government means the chief minister and the cabinet, and every decision has to be collectively taken by them. Neither the prime minister nor the chief minister can do so independently.

It is because of this verdict that any proposed law, all key appointments and critical decisions of the government are always placed before the federal cabinet and are implemented only after their approval by the cabinet. In case of any urgency, the green signal is received from the cabinet through circulation.

The official record shows that no meeting of the Punjab cabinet was held in which it was decided that the March 29 and 30 notifications should be scrapped through the April 1 order. The notifications were cancelled in indecent haste after the federal and Punjab ministers from South Punjab raised a collective hue and cry over the curtailment of the powers and status of the SPSs, rendering them redundant and irrelevant.

The Services & General Administration Department (S&GAD), which released all these notifications, is under the direct control of the chief minister and the chief secretary, who are its custodians. No minister has been made its in-charge. is not possible that a human error and clerical or technical mistake resulted in the notifications being issued.

To overcome the chaotic situation, the chief minister announced that a ministerial committee led by Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, brother of Federal Minister Khusro Bakhtar, has been directed to devise within seven days new rules for the SPSs as the government was committed to giving the best and most efficient administration to South Punjab.

The committee would submit its recommendation on expanding the number of the existing 16 departments to all the provincial departments in the SPSs.

Why the S&GAD-- which exclusively falls in the domain of the chief minister and chief secretary -- had promulgated the controversial notifications and the one that cancelled all of them, sidelining the Implementation and Coordination (I&C) Secretary Mukhtar Masood, is beyond comprehension.

The cabinet wing or I&C wing of the S&GAD had issued the notifications, which caused an upheaval within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members of the national and Punjab assemblies from South Punjab.

As far as the federal government is concerned, it has kept itself away from the row, triggered by the chief minister, regarding the disempowerment of the SPSs, an official told The News. On the face of it, it has not done any fire-fighting on the issue. He said that the central government is apparently not interested in pursuing the demand for the creation of another province in Punjab. It has not been very enthusiastic about the issue and wants to put it on the backburner.