Law on Jungle on Roads in Punjab: Shahbaz Sharif’s good governance?

Sharifs Send Chief Secretary Punjab on Long Leave
The Chief Secretary of Punjab Mr. Javed Mehmood has been dispatched on a long leave of absence after public and media pressure on the death of Col (R) Ikram.
In his place, the Chairman of Punjab government’s Planning Division, Mr. Sami Saeed will perform the duties of the top bureaucrat of the largest province of Pakistan. To facilitate that, the ruling provincial government led by PML-Nawaz party has promoted Saeed as Additional Chief Secretary of Punjab.
Col (Retd) Ikram, a war veteran, lost his life in a road accident after his motorbike was hit by the vehicle of Punjab chief secretary Mehmood. Initial investigations by the police and the bureaucracy was contested by the bereaved family, public and the media.
Thereafter the issue became a political hot potato.
A late night meeting headed by the Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif decided to send the Chief Secretary Mehmood on long leave to avoid his influence on the investigation of the accident case, a report has said.
The decision came after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited Col (r) Ikram’s residence over the weekend. Punjab Gov Salman Taseer also visited the residence of the deceased colonel and met with the bereaved family.
According to reports, the Sharif brothers took the decision jointly amid great pressure from the bereaved family and the civil society, demanding the removal of the head of the provincial bureaucratic machinery in order to ensure an impartial investigation in the case.
According to administrative rules, the Chief Secretary heads all law enforcing agencies in the province, leading to a potential conflict of interest in investigation of high-profile matters, or the very least a public perception of such a conflict of interest which in reality might develop at any stage.
The accident probe was being termed ‘partial’ and ‘unfair’ by Pakistani media.
The issue became so hotly debated that Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer had to personally visit the residence of the victim. Talking to media afterward Salman Taseer said that there seems to be “the law of jungle” prevalent in the province he is supposed to govern.
Colonel Retired Muhammad Ikram died in CM Hospital Lahore after he was allegedly hit by the Punjab Chief Secretary Javed Mehmood’s car. The retired colonel, a war veteran, was on his way to the Allama Iqbal University sub-campus on a motorcycle when he was allegedly struck by the official car carrying the Punjab Chief Secretary near Girja Chowk in Lahore.

The chief secretary was returning from Lahore airport after seeing-off Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, media reports said.
According to reports, Chief Secretary Javed Mehmood left the retired colonel critically injured on the road. After the hit-and-run incident , the victim was rushed to CM Hospital where he later died.
Azam Ikram, son of the deceased, told an Urdu language news channel “Express News” that his family will spare no expense, and knock at every door to seek justice.
A vibrant and independent media subsequently took up the matter and automatically it turned into a case of public interest.
The investigation team, probing into the death of Colonel (Retd) Ikram was quick in declaring the Chief Secretary Punjab and his driver ‘not guilty’.
The family of the deceased has declared the investigations ‘partial’ and ‘unfair’.
The investigation team declared the Chief Secretary and his driver ‘not guilty’ as according to them their vehicle was within speed limit, observing that Col Ikram had in fact broken the traffic signal. The report also claims that the traffic warden and gunmen of the Chief Secretary took the injured Colonel to the CM Hospital.
The family of the deceased remains unsatisfied as they were not included in the investigation. Azam Ikram, son of late Col Ikram said, “justice cannot be served till the Chief Secretary is removed from his post.”
Punjab Chief Secretary’s car, which was involved in the accident, was impounded by the police for investigations after the media questioned why the motorcycle of the deceased was held by the authority and not the Chief Secretary’s car.
Following criticism by the media, the Lahore Police has arrested the driver allegedly responsible for the accident.
Even an FIR was not registered which is the right of every citizen, it has emerged.

http://pkonweb.com/2010/02/02/sharifs-send-chief-secretary-punjab-on-long-leave/

The chief secretary’s chauffeur

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Anjum Niaz

The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting

Let’s not get overly swayed by the Swiss banks blow-by-blow account currently hitting the headlines almost every day. There is corruption elsewhere, except the media’s full attention at the moment is fixated on Zardari’s alleged millions stashed away in reportedly forty bank accounts in Switzerland, Europe and the US. Let’s instead zero in on GOR (Government Officers’ Residences) estate, Lahore. Number 9 Aikman Road is the official home of the chief secretary, Punjab. It was once a modest, unremarkable sort of residence with just one sentry standing guard. The sprawling lawn would hardly invite a second gaze from the passerby. There was nothing spectacular to see in it. The inmates equally unspectacular would go about their business, unnoticed and unheralded. The chief secretary himself would be his own chauffeur, driving his kids to school and ending up at his office in the Punjab secretariat to conduct the business of the day. And the ‘Begum chief secretary’ had to fend for herself, use her own private car and private driver to ferry her about the town.

Period.

Today, 9 Aikman Road has been turned into a vulgar display of power, announcing to all and sundry: beware of the inmate. He’s a man you wouldn’t want to mess with. He’s the chief minister’s head honcho. He’s the chosen one. He’s invincible. He’s invulnerable. But God abhors vanity. In one fleeting moment, the present chief secretary met his comeuppance. It was divine. His hit-and-run story turned his world upside down. Even his benefactor, the chief minister could not save him. The people’s wrath was upon him. Finally he gave in to popular demand and stepped down. He’s currently hunkered down because he was allegedly callous enough to leave a dying man on the road when his car hit the unfortunate person. Had his victim been a poor, faceless and unknown member of the hoi polloi, the story would have been dead like the man himself. But the victim was a retired army colonel. His family went to the press. The rest, as they say is history. By the way had our chief secretary committed this crime in the US, he would be behind bars because ‘hit-and-run’ is a jailable offence.

Join me in a tour de force of the GOR estate, home to elite civil servants and the judiciary. The chief minister too has his camp there. And then decide why these favoured few should live in luxury at the expense of the taxpayers. The British built the homes. The old trees on both sides shading the roads must shed tears at the ‘low lifes’ now living there. There are 161 homes. And under their porches stand several staff cars – one for the sahib, one for the begum sahib and one for the kids. Several peons, assistants, deputy assistants and drivers, all paid for by the government, stand hand and foot to serve their master and his family. I shan’t be surprised if the daily household items, including food, cold drinks and fruit are billed to the government under the pretext of official entertainment. If this is not corruption, what is?

“In my calculation an enterprising and well-connected civil servant could easily cost the tax payer Rs800,000 to Rs10,000,000 a month. Of course none of this is monitorable, allowing the myth of a poor underpaid civil servant to be perpetuated” says Nadeem ul Haque, an adviser to the IMF in Washington. “Did you know that GOR has three clubs and they refuse to let a school be built there? Did you know that they have sealed off GOR as a private garden and have allocated tons of money to make an old house into a leisure club for bureaucrats? Meanwhile the poor kids school in GOR has been destroyed. Who do we blame? It goes far beyond Zaradari,” he continues.

Nadeem wonders why the media expends all its energy castigating Zardari day and night while no one shines a spotlight on the bureaucrats who commit daylight robbery in the form of perks that cannot be monetized and therefore are outside of the pale of public scrutiny.

Living in the lap of luxury is head honcho # 2; the commissioner Lahore. According to recent news item headlined ‘Khusro Pervaiz highest-paid bureaucrat’ we’re told that that is what the commissioner has become. A TV channel reports that while Khusro Pervaiz drew a monthly salary of Rs 334,000 as the project director of the Lahore Ring Road project, he was also receiving Rs50,000 a month for holding the additional charge of the commissioner. Please go look and see how many Prados/land cruisers are parked in his home courtesy the project he heads. This is aside the official cars he enjoys as the commissioner.

“The civil servant has learnt to game the incentive system that seeks to keep cash salaries low and allows invisible perks to be distributed freely beyond public scrutiny,” says Nadeem. “Recently, they have given themselves all manner of allowances in the name of development and efficiency. Thus the commissioner Lahore is now project director of Ring Road and a development office and hence draws those hefty salaries.”

Let us remind ourselves of the role of commissioner Lahore, states Nadeem, himself a son of an ICS (Indian Civil Service)officer. “It is mainly a magisterial function i.e., his/her main task should be the maintenance of law and order. Why then is he doing development? The answer is obvious–to collect the allowances.”

How can a commissioner look after law and order when he’s busy elsewhere? Maybe the office of chief minister Shahbaz can tell us how.

“The commissioner also gets additional perks that we are not counting. A house in walled estate with a rental value of over Rs300,000, all utilities paid, domestic servants (number unknown), cars with gas (number unknown), cheap club memberships to at least 2 elite institutions etc. Frequently government will give a civil servant of this rank land at heavily subsidized rates,” says Nadeem.

“Monetize perks now!” shouts Nadeem, “Is it not time to rid the tax payer of the burden of perks?”

Indeed a valid question but one that does not gain favour with the rulers of the land. Nadeem ul Haque has been kept out in the cold, despite his excellent credentials as a seasoned economist. Someone like him should be heading the Planning Commission, but do you think that can ever happen? The man is too blunt for his bosses’ comfort level; his recommendations will denude the bosses of their perks.

A retired civil servant tells me Shahbaz Sharif is not as effective an administrator as he was last time he was chief minister. “He always seems in a hurry,” says the civil servant, “he cuts people in the middle and moves on to the next speaker without allowing him a chance to complete his say.” Why is Shahbaz Sharif in such a hurry? Does he have a train to catch or a jet to fly him to more exotic places abroad? Why is he loath to listen to good advice proffered by well-wishers? Maybe Governor Salman Taseer is tightening his net around him. Taseer makes no secret of targetting the Sharifs. It’s become his obsession.

“Shahbaz Sharif thinks that by making think tanks, he’s getting somewhere. But the tragedy is he isn’t. Nothing substantial appears happening,” the retired bureaucrat who has just witnessed the goings on at the CM’s secretariat tells me. “Besides, the junior officers are insecure and unsure of their boss. They don’t know when he may fire them on the spot!”

More next week.

Email: [email protected] & www. anjumniaz.com

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=225828