The report is that Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and the Lahore CCPO have refused to accept the federal government’s decision to withdraw the CCPO’s services; CCPO Ghulam Mehmood Dogar has refused to cede command. This made Chaudhry Parvez Elahi so thrilled that he went to see Dogar, hugged him, and broadcast footage of the ‘master hug’ to the media. After his role in the registration of a case against ministers Marriyum Aurangzeb and Javed Latif was publicised, the federal government, which supervises the CSP officers, ordered Mr Dogar to report to the federal cabinet division.
The most recent incident foreshadows a period in the future when Punjab appears to be headed towards an administrative crisis. We shall very soon witness a recurrence of the historical tensions that existed in the 1990s when Benazir Bhutto of the PPP commanded the centre and Nawaz Sharif was the chief minister of Punjab.
Kamran Ali Afzal, the Punjab chief secretary, has taken time off because he no longer wants to work for the Punjab government. The big question is, why does he not want to cooperate with the Parvez Elahi administration? The Centre must appoint the chief secretary and the IG police after consulting the provinces, as per the regulations. Given that Punjab has been consulted, now it is the will of the chief minister to appoint an officer from a given panel of officers.
We have all the necessary governmental and administrative structures, but sadly, they do not function in line with the spirit of the constitution. Government officials meddle in legislative and executive activities, and legislators work to sway the executive branch. We need to refrain from spending our time on such issues at a time when flooding has wreaked havoc on the province, leaving millions of residents homeless, destroying crops, destroying roads and bridges, increasing the prevalence of water-borne illnesses, and affecting all of us due to inflation. The lack of flour is affecting almost the whole nation. What would it be like for a province to lack a competent administration team? It is also unfortunate that every eight to ten years we experience the devastation of floods.
The provincial ombudsman received 17,624 complaints against the provincial ministries until August of this year. It would not be out of place to state it here that there is a procedure that aids in the swift resolution of public issues; in these circumstances, the government should avoid shifting officials and placing officers on leave. Everyone must follow the constitution and rules at work. Each of us must honour and respect the law in order to put an end to issues and challenges. Just imagine the situation, when there does a government exist, but there is no one to carry out its directives. Give everyone their constitutional position and mandate constitutional obligations because legislation will be buried in the books.
In these situations, all sections of the nation must work together to aid and rehabilitate the victims of the flood and rain calamity. Unfortunately, at a time when cooperation and a single plan are required, the federal and Punjab governments are preoccupied with attempting to defeat one another. The federation is exacerbating provincial government issues. This tension appears to be on the verge of escalating. If the administrative machinery fails in a province where there are numerous issues, such as lawlessness, encroachment, administrative incompetence, shortages of basic necessities, inflation, road closures, and aid for flood victims, there will be a catastrophe.
Let us come back to the master hug of the chief minister, and wait for a handshake between the centre and the Punjab government.
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