Wednesday, July 29, 2009

* Administrative secretaries to decide postings and transfers up to BS-18
By Anwer Hussain Sumra

LAHORE: Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif has authorised the administrative secretaries of all departments to decide the transfers and postings of officials up to BS-18 without involving the CM’s Secretariat, sources in the secretariat told Daily Times.

The decision was taken for better service delivery, good governance and upholding merit in transfers and postings, the sources said. According to instructions issued by CM’s Secretary Dr Syed Touqir Shah, the departments shift their responsibility of taking decisions to the office of the CM. This increases the workload on the CM’s Secretariat and slows the decision making process. Such shifting of responsibility up the ladder is particularly evident in matters related to transfers and postings, according to the instructions. Many a time, positioning of the human resource available with the departments is held up or delayed due to the multitude of summaries moved by the departments to the CM’s Secretariat.

Considering this, the CM directed all the administrative secretaries to make all transfers and postings up to BS-18 and ensure better service delivery in the province. In April, Shahbaz empowered his Senior Adviser Zulifqar Ali Khosa to deal with transfers and postings on all administrative slots in the province in BS-17 and BS-18 owing to the workload on the CM’s Secretariat, the sources said. Khosa also decided the transfers and postings of lower subordinates on key slots. Khosa conveyed all the transfers and postings in the civil and police administration to the officers concerned for implementation. The transfers and postings of provincial secretaries, commissioners, district coordination officers and district police officers in the province were conveyed by the CM’s principal secretary to the authorities concerned, the sources said. In August 2008, the CM’s Secretariat verbally directed all officials posted in the secretariat that the directives regarding transfer and posting of patwaris, registrary moharrars and station house officers would only be issued after the permission of the CM’s secretary. In April this year, this task was given to the senior adviser, the sources said. Officials in the CM’s Secretariat realised that deciding transfers and postings hindered other important decisions, the sources said. The policy to decide the transfers and postings up to BS-18 at the CM’s Secretariat centralised power and invited criticism, the sources said.

To avoid such a situation, the CM’s Secretariat decided to delegate the powers to the concerned secretaries who are the competent authority for this job according to the Rules of Business 1974, the sources said.