Chief Minister Punjab Usma Buzdar. Photo: File

LAHORE: Usman K. Buzdar, the chief minister of Punjab, transferred 12 civil servants from the ministry for school education in a single day.



“This is unprecedented. It may be the largest shuffle in the history of this department,” a senior official in the ministry confided to Geo.tv, on the condition of anonymity. Under the Civil Servants Rules, 1973, the method of appointments, promotions and transfers has to be laid down by the ministry or division concerned. “But in this case,” adds the official, “The chief minister gave the direct orders. Even the secretary of education was informed only 30 minutes before the written orders came.”

It is unclear if the Murad Ras, the minister of education, was in the know. He did not respond to requests for comments by Geo.tv.

The notification, dated December 4, only carries the signature of a junior official, Shafqat Ali, the section officer in the ministry.

Of the 12 district education officers immediately shuffled, seven are 19-grade bureaucrats. A large number of the men have been reassigned to cities in South Punjab, including Multan, Vehari, R.Y. Khan. Interestingly, the chief minister himself hails from a city in South Punjab.

Taseem Noorani, a retired bureaucrat, says that while it not mandatory to get the approval of the minister-in-charge “it is an act of common courtesy” to keep the minister and secretary in the loop.

This comes in the midst of reports of administrative crises and tug-of-war for control in Punjab.

Buzdar was elected as chief minister by Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. In September, Khan promised, at a gathering of civil servants, that "promotions will be made on merit, isolated from political pressure." But those claims are proving hollow in Pakistan most populous and politically important province. Since taking office in August, Buzdar has had a patchy record with the bureaucracy in the province. Appointments have either been slow or haphazard. The Punjab ministry of education did not have a secretary for the last three months. Finally, Sheikh Zafar Iqbal was appointed the secretary of school education last week, on November 23. Surprisingly, Iqbal has no prior experience in the province. Earlier he served in Sindh and then in the centre.

Similar off-the-cuff transfers landed the chief minister in the Supreme Court in October, after he sent packing police officer Rizwan Gondal for failing to apologise to the first lady’s former husband. Buzdar was then forced to submit an “unconditional apology” to the court for his actions.

Officials in the bureaucracy, who spoke to Geo.tv anonymously, see this as a power play between the chief minister and the senior minister of his party. “Buzdar has been lately trying to assert himself by bypassing ministers to issue order,” explained another official, “Which has led to the civil servants in the province being rotated as if on a spindle.”