June 26, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

MUZAFFARABAD, June 25: People have expressed surprise and anger over a recent government notification announcing facilities for retired chief secretaries of the Azad Kashmir government.

The services and general administration department last week issued a notification exempting the retired chief secretaries from getting licences for possessing one prohibited bore and two non-prohibited bore weapons and providing them free stay in government guest houses, rest houses, circuit houses in the AJK and the Kashmir House in Islamabad, pick and drop facility at the Islamabad airport with protocol, a staff car for a maximum of three days stay at the Kashmir House and a driver and a cook.

The people of the area told Dawn that being members of the Central Superior Services, the chief secretaries were the liability of the federal government and not the AJK government, which was already facing resource shortage.

During service in the AJK, a chief secretary draws salary from the federal exchequer and his accommodation, vehicles and other facilities are arranged by the state government.

Besides the chief secretary, the finance secretary, the accountant general, the inspector general police and the additional chief secretary (development) are also posted in the AJK by the federal government, who are commonly referred to as “lent officers.”

The notification had some ambiguities in it, as had a similar notification issued by the Punjab government, official sources said.

“The file was processed so fast that no one could point out flaws in the draft of the “readymade” notification,” said a source.

Sources, however, pointed out that the Punjab government had offered such facilities to former chief secretaries who would dwell in the province after retirement.

Punjab could give such facilities to retired officials because it was financially a self-reliant province but this factor had been ignored by the AJK government,” said Shaikh Aqeelur Rehman, Jamaat-i-Islami Amir of the Muzaffarabad district.

He pointed out that majority of chief secretaries of the AJK spent most of their time in Islamabad and there was no point to burden taxpayers for their luxuries.

He said the Kashmir House (Islamabad) was a provisional accommodation for AJK officers visiting the federal capital only for official business.

“If a retired chief secretary, who is in fact a former federal government employee, visits the federal capital he should be taken care of by the federal government and not the AJK government,” said Khwaja Atif Bashir, a leader of People’s Muslim League.