LAHORE: The Punjab government on Friday threw its weight behind the PAS (formerly DMG) officers who gathered in the city from all corners of the province to protest over, what they say, humiliating arrest of former LDA director general Ahad Cheema.

But the civil servants markedly stood divided on some points such as whether or not to protest as officers of the state while attending their offices, and should they demand dignified treatment for all or only for Mr Cheema.

“We should not cross the line or show red rag to NAB or any other institution,” said a senior officer while sitting in his office when the PAS officers were delivering fiery speeches in GOR-I’s Civil Officers Mess after reaching there from all over the province on the call of Additional Chief Secretary Umar Rasool.

“I can’t close my office because it is not my personal property. It belongs to the state,” he said.

Another senior officer revealed that NAB had questioned nearly 50 officials of various departments in the past two months though unfortunately in a humiliating way. He refuses to approve of such harassment but he was clearly not in favour of showing reaction in a way that could cause any harm to Mr Cheema or others.

“We are minions of law and should follow it even while objecting to anything,” he said.

Yet another senior officer said the PAS officers wished the Supreme Court take a suo motu notice of the way Mr Cheema was arrested. But they should also be mindful that the Supreme Court could take such a notice of their strike as well.

An officer told this reporter that he was so dejected that he was thinking of leaving the job. The officers would continue to boycott work till “we are assured of a dignified treatment by all the quarters concerned,” he said.

But another official who remained part of the meeting, left the venue in the evening for his office in some other district, telling this reporter, “I have to look after my official work,” indicating he was not going to take any risk even while protesting over the incident.

Work affected in districts as most divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners were in the marathon meeting in GOR-I. But the organisers said they had left behind officers to handle emergencies. Some DCOs and commissioners could not reach Lahore because of official compulsions, one of the organisers said.

Offices of Mr Rasool and additional secretaries administration and welfare remained locked for most part of the day but later unlocked under direction from the chief secretary who acted on the advice of some senior officers. All other offices in the Civil Secretariat remained open. Secretaries of various departments like home, prosecution, law, services, mines, housing and chairman P&D, and their team members attended their offices.

The chief secretary appeared to be in a quandary as to whether to follow the rules and procedures attached to his office, or to act according to the desire of the more vociferous among the bureaucrats considered close to Mr Cheema, or especially the chief minister.

The Punjab cabinet and the law minister took exception to the way Mr Cheema was arrested. But Leader of the Opposition Mian Mahmoodur Rashid reached the Civil Secretariat along with some of his party MPAs to “break the locks” of the closed offices and show solidarity with NAB for what he maintained pouncing upon the corrupt for the first time in the history of Pakistan. He alleged that Mr Cheema worked for the Sharif family.

The seniors in their officers kept an eye on the meeting in the GOR-I. They quickly reacted when a part of electronic media reported that the agitating officers were moving towards the NAB offices and authorities there had summoned the Rangers. The chief secretary was contacted immediately with a request to block the move.

Instructions were also issued to police and others concerned to show courtesy to the opposition MPAs when informed that Mian Mahmoodur Rashid was leading them to the secretariat. The opposition team was escorted to the offices of the additional chief secretary to show these were not locked.

The opposition leader told reporters that he would again visit the secretariat on Monday to open all offices found closed. He said the opposition stood behind courts and NAB as the country could not progress without getting rid of such elements. He also objected to the promotion of Mr Cheema to BS-20 and said he should instead have been suspended from service after his arrest. His promotion should be withdrawn, he demanded.

Meanwhile, a number of PAS officers delivered speeches against what they said humiliation of Mr Cheema and other officials by NAB, the government and others.

A communiqué issued late in the night said a meeting of the civil officers in Punjab was held here which was attended by more than 300 officers from the provincial and federal services.

The officers said it was becoming hard for the honest and diligent ones to function. They condemned what they said humiliation of officers by political and other quarters in the last few years. The participants agreed that impartial and transparent accountability was the basic principle of public service and no public servant was above it. The officers expressed their anguish over the failure (of the quarters concerned) to take notice of such events in which especially Messrs Maqbool Ahmad Dhawla, Wasim Ajmal Chaudhry, Amir Atiq, Safdar Virk, Khaqan Baber, Usman Akram Gondal, Muhammad Ali Nekokara, Khurram Shehzad and Aftab Cheema were humiliated. (The first two officers were allegedly humiliated in Punjab recently).

The communiqué said the civil officers had always served the state and the people while remaining above political affiliations. They expressed their annoyance over the way pictures showing handcuffed Mr Cheema and others were taken and published.

The meeting demanded full implementation of the Supreme Court’s Anita Turab case verdict so that the civil service could play its due role in making Pakistan a progressive and welfare state as envisioned by the Quaid-i-Azam. Mr Umar Rasool told Dawn that future course of action would be announced later on. “We are doing a lot of things on many fronts,” he said.

Another officer said these fonts included approaching courts for relief.

Most provincial service officials remained away from the protest. And, sources said, the PAS officers were convincing them for support till late in the night.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2018