LAHORE, April 2: Caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi has said from ‘SHOs (station house officers) to secretaries’ all are going to be replaced shortly.
“New Punjab Chief Secretary Javed Iqbal is going to assume his office. He will constitute his team with consultation and from the SHOs to secretaries all will be replaced to ensure free and fair elections,” Sethi told newsmen after calling on former opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz at his residence here on Tuesday.
The PPP and PML-Q have been demanding that the caretaker chief minister replace the ‘favourite police officials and bureaucrats’ of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif. The PPP circles have welcomed the caretaker chief minister’s statement,expressing the hope that he will brave the PML-N pressure in this respect.
Removing all the officials close to the PML-N may ‘annoy’ its leadership, says a source in the PML-N. “Shahbaz Sharif had appointed ‘honest’ officials especially on all key posts and the caretaker chief minister should not simply go for a thorough reshuffle only for the sake of reshuffle,” he said.
Raja Riaz told Dawn that in the meeting he and other PPP leaders had only asked Mr Sethi to remove the ‘favourite’ officials of the Shahbaz Sharif government as they might influence the elections. “We don’t want our favourite officials on key posts. We want neutral, honest and dedicated officials to be posted for holding free and fair elections,” Riaz said.
To a question whether he was going to replace PML-N’s favourite officials with that of PPP’s, Najam Sethi said: “Neutral officials will be appointed to ensure free and fair elections. Take the example of appointment of IGP Aftab Sultan and caretaker home minister Tariq Pervaiz, they are honest and dedicated.”
He said his meetings with the leaders of political parties had been very useful and yielded positive results with regard to holding of fair and transparent elections. “Every political leader I met asked me that the caretaker set-up must ensure free and fair elections. They say they make no ‘Safarash’ for any posting.”
He said changes in bureaucracy would be made in the light of the orders of Election Commission and this process would be conducted in such a manner that no political party would have any complaint. He said IB and special branch had been asked to provide information about honest and dedicated officers.
To a question about ‘dropping the name of educationist Eric Massey from the list of caretaker ministers, Mr Sethi said he was interviewed but was not considered for the slot. He said three more members will be added to the cabinet.