LAHORE: The “cash-strapped” caretaker Punjab government has released whopping Rs2.34 billion funds for the purchase of new luxury vehicles for the officers, including assistant commissioners (ACs) and additional commissioners and commissioners.

Following approval by caretaker chief minister, the Punjab chief secretary has allocated Rs2.334 billion for the purchase of 1,600CC cars for all divisional commissioners, 1300CC for all additional deputy commissioners (General) and double cabin 4x4 for all AC.

All the double cabin vehicles currently under the use of ACs will be retrieved and allocated to tehsildars for “better performance in the field”.

Almost all new double cabin vehicles were bought during the last tenure of Shehbaz Sharif’s government in Punjab in 2017-18 fiscal.

Officials told Dawn that it was necessary to provide new vehicles to tehsildars since they were using 1990s jeeps or conducting field visits on private vehicles.

“It was necessary to provide good official vehicles to tehsildars to establish writ of the government,” an officer.

Acknowledging the need for better vehicles for revenue officers, another senior officer said the cash-strapped government, after the arrival of IMF loan, had begun using the funds to `facilitate’ civil bureaucracy ahead of general elections.

The officer, however, suggested the tehsildars could have been given less costly vehicles to save the public money. He added that the caretaker Punjab government was also compelled to allocate some Rs2bn to Rs3bn for the ‘welfare’ of secretariat employees.

Endorsing the idea of new vehicles for additional deputy commissioners, a senior bureaucrat said former chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi during his stint in the PTI government had purchased new double cabin vehicles for the additional deputy commissioners (revenue), deputy commissioners and commissioners.

Published in Dawn, July 22th, 2023