In rare move, Punjab Assembly speaker seeks secy’s removal over house absence

LAHORE: In a rare move in recent parliamentary history, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan has sought removal of a provincial secretary for not joining house proceedings in violation of its Rules of Procedure.

Speaker Khan told the house on Thursday that Mines and Minerals Secretary Babar Aman Babar violated the Privileges Act 1972 and the assembly secretariat would write to Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman asking the latter to initiate action against the officer under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act for violating the assembly’s Rules of Procedure by not joining the house proceedings when his (Babar’s) department was being discussed by the lawmakers.

He said if the case did not fall within the purview of the PEEDA Act, then it would be referred to the Judicial Committee of the house, while the Privileges Committee would continue its proceedings on the issue and submit a report to him within a fortnight.

He said the directive was being sent on the recommendation of the PMLN’s Samiullah Khan-led Privileges Committee, which had summoned the secretary on an urgent basis to know the reasons for his absence from the assembly session and observed during the committee’s proceedings that the officer was “not sound enough to head the department.”

Quoting the committee’s report, the speaker said the officer’s conduct was found to be ‘unprofessional’ and further ‘contemptuous’ during the committee’s proceedings.

“The secretary was hyper, abnormal and seemed a psycho as he would not positively respond to the queries put to him by the committee,” PTI MPA Mian Ejaz Shafi, also a member of the panel, told Dawn by phone.

An official in the Civil Secretariat, however, believed that Mr Babar was targeted because he had decided against the wishes of Mines and Minerals Minister Sher Ali Gorchani in two cases.

Earlier during the house proceedings, the minister said that he could not manage the department until he’s authorised to write the annual confidential report of the departmental secretary.

He told the Punjab Assembly during Question Hour that if the house desired that ministers and lawmakers were given respect by the officialdom, then the ministers should be allowed to write ACRs of their respective secretaries.

He offered Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan to take charge of his department for first-hand information of the difficulties he’s facing at the hands of the department’s hierarchy.

Irked by the absence of the secretary as written queries by MPAs about the department were being taken up, the speaker put off house proceedings for 15 minutes to summon the officer before the house.

He directed the privileges committee to also take up the absence matter and report him within half an hour.

When the house met again after the 15-minute break, the speaker told the MPAs that the committee sought some more time and that action against the secretary would be taken by tabling a call-attention notice in the house.

The minister also earlier told the house that ex-chief minister Parvez Elahi amended the department’s rules to grant contracts for 0.1 million acres of Khewra salt mines to his family and friends, thus causing a loss of around Rs60 billion to the provincial kitty.

He said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has assured that export of pink salt as raw material at a cheap rate to India, which was re-exporting it as Himalaya salt at a rate of $12 per kg, would be halted and that the same would be exported to Europe as made-in-Pakistan product.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024