Governor’s Principal Secretary resists car surrender
LAHORE
THE Chief Minister’s Secretariat is facing resistance from the Governor’s House in its efforts to take a luxury bulletproof vehicle from Principal Secretary to Governor, Hasan Waseem Afzal, The News learnt on Thursday.
Chief Minister Dost Muhammad Khosa, after assuming office, turned the Chief Minister’s Secretariat into an Information University for Women.
He also announced an auction of a fleet of luxury vehicles which was used by former Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi for security purposes. In pursuance to CM orders, the CM’s Secretariat and the Service and General Administration Department started taking surplus vehicles from all administrative departments for their auction.
The CM’s Secretariat did not even spare former CM Ch Pervaiz Elahi and took all the vehicles he was using even after leaving the CM office.
Sources said a luxury bulletproof vehicle, owned by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, was still in the use of Principal Secretary to Governor, Hasan Waseem Afzal, and he was not willing to surrender it despite several reminders by the S&GAD. Insiders said the CM’s Secretariat was finding itself helpless before an influential Afzal, as it wanted to get back the luxury jeep to auction it.
Former Home Secretary Hasan Waseem Afzal was using the bulletproof vehicle worth Rs 36 million ever since it was imported from Japan in September 2004. Mr Afzal, as Home Secretary Punjab, received the bulletproof jeep from the former Punjab Chief Minister on the pretext that he was facing life threats from PPP and PML-N activists.
On his transfer as Punjab Additional Chief Secretary, Mr Afzal took the vehicle to his new office instead of sending it to the new Home Secretary.
Mr Afzal took the vehicle, owned by the provincial government, to Islamabad after he was given an assignment as Deputy Chairman NAB.
Insiders said the federal government had allowed Mr Afzal to use the vehicle because he was allegedly being threatened by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for ‘tracing’ Swiss accounts of the late Benazir Bhutto and her spouse.
Now, Mr Afzal is posted in the Punjab as Principal Secretary to Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool and the luxury vehicle is still in his use and he is not willing to surrender it to the S&GAD.
However, when contacted, ACS said they had sent a number of reminders and notices to Mr Afzal to surrender the jeep to the S&GAD but he had not responded to them. He said they had taken around 300 vehicles from different departments, including the CM’s Secretariat, and were expecting the number to swell to 450 within a couple of days. He said they had formed a committee to take measures for the auction of the vehicles after completing legal requirements.