MULTAN, Oct 15: The step-motherly treatment meted out to backward areas was highlighted by the discovery that the programme officer of Dera Ghazi Khan Arts Council had been working in Lahore for the last eight years.

It is interesting to note that the arrangement to benefit just one individual remained unchanged for all these years despite the changing faces at the helm of affairs.

Saeed Ahmed Zafar Padhiar as the Punjab minister for information and culture in 1994 had one Afraz Ahmed working as his staff officer. Earlier, Mr Afraz had been an administrative officer of the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP).

On Feb 21, 1994, the TDCP issued a letter deputing Mr Afraz to the Punjab Council of Arts (Pucar), reportedly on the insistence of the minister. The then Pucar executive director hesitantly succumbed to ministerial pressure and posted Afraz as the programme officer of Dera arts council against a vacant post, under order no SOE(INF)10-3/94 (dated November 3, 1994). The post was ‘shifted’ to Lahore. The deputation was for one year only.

To further oblige his staff officer, Mr Padhiar issued a directive to the department of information and culture on January 6, 1995, to employ Mr Afraz permanently in Pucar. The minister was told that Mr Afraz did not fulfil the prerequisites of a programme officer, which included a masters degree and three-year experience in the relevant filed. However, the bureaucracy was again not able to resist the ministerial pressure and the then secretary information issued orders for Mr Afraz’s employment in Pucar through letter no Pucar/E.I(249)/95/289 (dated: March 9, 1995).

When the one-year period of Mr Afraz’s deputation ended, the then secretary information, Zahoorul Haq Sheikh, ordered on October 11, 1995, that Mr Afraz should be sent back to the TDCP. Consequently, the Pucar authorities terminated his services on October 30 via letter no SOE(INF)18-3/94/Pucar. However, the TDCP management informed the Pucar authorities that Mr Afraz could not rejoin the TDCP as an administrative officer, as the post was no more vacant.

The matter remained undecided till April, 1996. However, the minister did not lay off Mr Afraz, who continued working as his staff officer. On April 6, 1996, the information department withdrew its orders for termination of services of Mr Afraz, who was again made a ‘Lahore-based’ programme officer of Dera arts council.

When the PPP government was sacked in 1996 and Mr Padhiar was no more a minister, Mr Afraz started working as the personal staff officer of the provincial information secretary. It may be added here that there is no provision for a PSO of the secretary. However, Mr Afraz has been working as the PSO of successive information secretaries since 1996 while drawing his salary as the programme officer from the meagre budget of Dera arts council.

It may be added here that on August 4, 1996, the regulation wing of S&GAD sent an advice regarding Mr Afraz that he should be deputed somewhere. The authorities concerned again issued orders for his employment in Pucar on May 7, 1997.

After the military takeover in 1999, the deputy secretary (administration) of the information department issued a letter (SOE (INF)6-1/95(P) to all heads of the affiliated departments to probe any wrongdoings during Mr Padhiar’s stay in the office of information minister. In response to that letter, the then Pucar executive director declared Mr Afraz’s employment in Pucar illegal (letter no Pucar/E.I (249)/189).

Meanwhile, the functioning of Dera arts council came to a halt due to the absence of the programme officer. When contacted, Dera arts council resident director Majeed Kauser confirmed that Mr Afraz was drawing salary from the arts council but working in Lahore.

He however said he was not in a position to redress the injustice done to the former divisional headquarter.