LAHORE, April 27: The massive reshuffle in the administrative machinery and the alleged policy to sideline senior bureaucrats in Punjab have generated fear, despondency and disillusionment among officials of all ranks who are describing the move as “an attempt to turn them into mere tools working for one government or another”.

What is crystal-clear is that those posted by the previous government are being discarded and the current incumbents are looking for their loyalists or those who are willing to dance to their tunes. Such allegations are being whispered in the corridors of bureaucracy these days.

While those at the helm of affairs are considering the changes necessary to “clear the unprecedented mess created because of the policies of the previous regime and its abortive attempts to use the official machinery to extend its rule”.

To justify the changes, they quote several examples in which gross irregularities were committed to appoint ‘favourites’ at key administrative posts so as to have complete grasp of the state of affairs. “The fact that they were given a carte blanche to indulge in corruption also warrants wholesale changes to the setup,” say those in power.

Many officials, who shared their views with Dawn on the request of anonymity, said everywhere in the world changes were made on charges of corruption and inefficiency and, if this is done, the accused (officials) were charge-sheeted and punished.

“The present government must also do this and publicly hang those involved in corruption or illegal means through proper channel and not at the private level. But this is not being done,” they regretted.

In most cases, they said, the reshuffle was being made in the name of public interest. There were instances in which no reason had been assigned for transfers of officials. And those working in fields were being given office posts and vice versa, they said.

They claimed that actually the transfers were being made on ‘suspicion’ that the officials were advancing the agenda of the PML-Q government, ignoring the fact that “not all are doing so”. Those in the saddle were blinking the fact that the government officials were bound to follow the policy of the setup they work under, civilian or military, they said. And by doing so the present rulers were dividing the officials into two groups -- those who had served the previous government and those who would serve them now. “If serving the past government is a sin, imagine what will happen to those who are obeying the orders of the incumbent government as part of their duty, and not as an expression of their loyalty,” they commented.

The bureaucrats also question the future of the employees who had demolished several blocks in the Civil Secretariat, gifted its junk to the lower staff and chopped off the old trees on the orders of the chief secretary if the action will be declared illegal by any future government. Will they be punished for carrying out the superior’s orders? they ask.

The officials termed the transfer of employees from one district to another a futile attempt which meant millions of rupees were being squandered by shifting charges and responsibilities. Under the rules, every transferred employee is to get at least Rs50,000 from the government as shifting charges.

“Will an officer who is loyal to, say, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and is posted from Sheikhupura to Rahim Yar Khan, give up his affiliations with him,” was a simple question they put to the government. “And will the inefficient and corrupt officials mend ways after getting transferred from one place to another and whether the government is going to import efficient and honest officials?” they asked.

It is for the first time in the history of the provincial government, they said, that junior officials were being given preferential treatment and the seniors were either being surrendered to the federal government or sidelined. It was tantamount to robbing the province of the experienced human resource, they said.

Mostly, seniors were being thrown into comparatively less important departments like the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team and the redundant Punjab Local Councils Election Authority by upgrading the posts from BS-20 to BS-21 as personal to them. “Isn’t it sheer waste of human resources and whether these senior officials will stop getting the higher salaries there?”

They claimed that a lot many officials had themselves gone to the federal government or were wishing to go over there because of ‘unfavourable’ working conditions here. Interestingly, a majority of the senior ones who opted out had been given important posts by the federal government.

The officials this correspondent talked to also accused the chief secretary of being hard on the staff. “There is no time of returning home, but a delay of a minute in the morning means action. The chief secretary’s office has been turned into the office of the defunct deputy commissioner where the stress is on implementation rather than policy-making and guidance,” they drew a parallel to explain working conditions.

By visiting Lahore streets and ordering streamlining of traffic or cleaning of roads, they observed, the chief secretary had assumed the role of a DCO or a nazim instead of getting these jobs done through them.

The new decision-makers, on the other hand, have no doubts about the merits of the moves as they defend the reshuffle and the steps taken by the chief secretary. The measures, they insist, aim at improving the state of affairs in Punjab.

They make a point that sacking of nearly 3,500 ‘superannuated’ people given re-employment by the previous government purely as a favour, has opened a floodgate of promotions for those being denied the basic right for years. This has also allowed the postings of more educated, efficient and able personages at the posts previously being held by the retired people. Even personal staff officers were given re-employment by declaring their posts technical, they say.

Quoting an example, a senior officer says in one south Punjab district, five ‘registry moharrirs’ were posted against two vacancies, allowing them to play havoc with the properties of people by working on alternate days. “Can it happen in the civil administration?” he asks.

Those objecting to the postings of mid-career officers at the key posts in Punjab are forgetting that the federal government needs experienced hands more than the province, he says. And those belonging to the DMG and police are required to spend their early lives in all provinces in the country to gain first-hand knowledge of issues, he says, and afterwards they become a national asset and are supposed to work for the federal government.

But, he says, there has been a tendency among officers to stay in Punjab, especially in Lahore, for various reasons, depriving the federation of their experience. “You know the federal government, at present, terribly lacks officers who have knowledge of all provinces.”

Those recognising the CMIT or the election authority as less important departments are badly mistaken, the official says, adding that the government is going to make them deliver and that’s precisely why senior officials have been posted there.