LAHORE: The Punjab government has issued a fifth letter – this time asking the bureaucracy to turn down requests even by chief minister Usman Buzdar’s blood relatives seeking undue favours.

“Despite issuance of instructions, if any such request from any such person, including blood relatives, is entertained by any officer in any administrative matter, he shall be liable to be proceeded against under relevant disciplinary laws/ rules,” reads the letter issued on Wednesday.

The letter written in a strict tone asks the administrative secretaries, police officers and officers deployed in the field at divisional, district and tehsils levels to observe restraint in giving undue favours to chief minster’s relatives and directs them to bring such incidents to the notice of the principal secretary to the chief minister, secretary to chief minister (coordination) and special secretary (implementation) immediately. The chief minister office started receiving such complaints soon after Mr Buzdar took over the chief executive office of Punjab. With a gap of one or two moths, such letters continued getting issued and the fifth letter was issued on Wednesday explicitly telling the bureaucracy to refuse even blood relatives of Usman Buzdar – seeking undue administrative favours.

The earlier letters stated that some unidentified people falsely represented themselves as relatives, including blood relatives, of the Punjab chief minister to get undue administrative favours.

It is learnt that the bureaucracy this time was resisting writing the letter but Mr Buzdar insisted that the letter must be issued to check if any of his relative was seeking undue favour from the government officials across the province. Eventually, the principal secretary to the chief minister, Dr Muhammad Shoaib Akbar, issued the letter under his own seal.

A source said that Mr Buzdar was touchy about his reputation and even heard saying that the Special Branch should also inform him, if he would do something beyond his powers or extend undue favour to anyone across the province.

It is learnt that the chief minister secretariat was continuously receiving complaints that many people, especially those belonging to the Buzdar clan, were approaching government offices and demanding that their works be done. They were also found interfering in transfer and posting of officials.

In September last year, the Punjab government twice wrote letters to the government officials across the province asking them to be careful about “fake calls and orders”. Besides this, the government was also receiving complaints that people were using the chief minsiter’s name to get favours and jobs done in hospitals, educational institutions and other government offices.

Early this year, the implementation and coordination (I&C) secretary wrote to the civil and police bureaucracy expressing grievousness of the subject matter and asking all top officials to report all those persons, who were trying to pose themselves as chief minister’s relatives.

Sources told Dawn that the bureaucracy was facing a difficult situation in Dera Ghazi Khan and elsewhere in the province, where the chief minister’s relatives, aides and ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders were approaching government officials and asking for favours.

They said Buzdar clan’s interference in government departments including police, irrigation, local government, highways and educational institutions was rampant. PTI MNAs and MPAs are also meddling in the administrative affairs of the government, said sources.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2019