LAHORE: Provincial prisons minister and spokesman for Punjab government Fayazul Hassan Chohan lambasted the civil servants in the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, raising objections to provision of funds for the upkeep of their official residences.

According to sources in the Punjab cabinet, an angry Chohan said why the restrictions and austerity measures were enforced only on the provincial ministers, and not the civil servants. He demanded that the administrative secretaries should also be brought in the net.

He said the provincial ministers’ official residences needed more renovation and upkeep, while those of the administrative secretaries were already well-maintained.

It is learnt that the austerity committee also continued the disbursement of discretionary grant of Rs300,000 a year.

The minister also lambasted the civil bureaucracy for its own projection on social media.

He said the civil bureaucracy was supposed to implement the government’s policy and should not indulge in self-projection.

Mr Chohan also demanded that the administrative secretaries’ performance reports should be submitted to the provincial ministers who should write their annual confidential reports (ACRs). Otherwise, he said, the bureaucrats would continue to ignore instructions of ministers and other political leaders.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2021