October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 17: In what may be called swansong of the Punjab government with its tenure in power shrinking rapidly, it announced on Wednesday to pay utility bills of all administrative secretaries up to Rs30,000 per month, making nearly 75 per cent of the take-home salary of most of these officers.

The facility, announced through a notification issued by the provincial finance department, will be considered effective from Oct 1, 2007 and be applicable to the secretaries in BS-20 and above. Secretaries of the regulation, services and implementation and coordination departments too will be entitled to avail the facility.

According to the notification, the government will pay the water, power and gas bills with in the announced limit. Nevertheless, the secretaries will have to pay the bills exceeding the ceiling.

The secretaries are allowed just one free official telephone at their residences at the moment.

The government is already paying the bills for these services to all senior officials, including the chief secretary, additional chief secretary, chairman P&D, principal secretaries to the governor and the chief minister, and the senior members of revenue board. There is no ceiling for them and they will continue to enjoy the perk.

The senior employees of the Governor’s House and the chief minister’s secretaries are also enjoying the facility already.

A secretary said the demand for the payment of utility bills was long standing. The government would simply pay the actual bills and the ceiling was not a part of the secretaries’ salary, he added.

Pervaiz: There will be no power sharing with the PPP and the ruling PML will oppose its activities against the national interest.

This was stated by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi while speaking at a press conference after extending Eid greetings to senior government officials here at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.

He alleged that Ms Benazir Bhutto was carrying home the message of provincialism. The PPP had become a “Moafi (pardon) party” but it would not be allowed to take steps detrimental to national interests and security. The PPP leadership would not be allowed to fulfill its designs to weaken the country.

The chief minister said the main thrust of the PPP had been the withdrawal of cases (against its leadership). In her press conference, Ms Bhutto said that the president in uniform was not acceptable to her whereas she had been negotiating with the same person for the withdrawal of cases against her.

He said the PPP leadership did not know the ground reality. Punjab had always talked of national interest and Pakistan, playing its full role for national integrity.