LAHORE: The Punjab government has finally succumbed to the “pressure” and withdrawn its two orders of transferring director-general of the Social Welfare and Baitul Maal department after a gap of over one-and-a-half months.

The Punjab government had transferred director-general Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, an ex-PCS BS-20 officer, on Jan 26 and directed her to report to the S&GAD. Five days later, the S&GAD posted Ms Imtiaz as Director Provincial Consumer Protection Council Secretariat. However, she did not relinquish her charge and continued performing as the DG.

The Punjab government had also posted Salman Ghani, a PAS/ BS-19 officer, as DG social welfare on Jan 26 but he could not take the charge.

While social welfare department secretary Ambreen Raza was saying that she had nothing to do with getting the DG social welfare charge relinquished, S&GAD secretary Ahmad Raza Sarwar kept mum. Neither the chief secretary responded to a question about the subject.

Sources claimed that social welfare minister Ajmal Cheema was supporting the DG. Mr Cheema had told Dawn that it was not his duty to get a charge relinquished from an officer, who had got transferred. “This is social welfare department’s duty, not mine,” he said.

As Ms Imtiaz continued holding the charge of the post, the Punjab government accepted its first defeat on Feb 20, when it re-posted Mr Ghani (under transfer as DG social welfare) as additional secretary (Drug Control) primary and secondary healthcare department.

Eventually on March 13, the Punjab government bowed down to the pressure and cancelled Ms Imtiaz’s both transfer orders and allowed her to continue to serve as DG social welfare.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2019