LAHORE: Chief Minister Hasan Askari, has decided to disband 12 “non-activeand non-operational corporations” established by ex-chief minister ShehbazSharif after fulfilling all legal requirements, rules and regulations andgetting an NoC from the accountability watchdog.
In a meeting to review the performance of Punjab’s public sector companies,the interim setup decided that a comprehensive strategy would be designedto bring necessary balance in the salaries of officers and employees ofpublic sector departments as well as government officers posted in suchcompanies.
Deputation allowance to government officers and other employees posted inpublic sector companies to lessen the fiscal burden on the exchequer wasalso proposed during the meeting.
Rizvi, while addressing the meeting, decided to extend necessarycooperation to the anti-graft watchdog with regard to the companiesestablished under the 2013-2018 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)government.
The chief minister said that secretaries would give a detailed briefing totheir respective ministers about the public sector companies established intheir departments. “Afterwards, the final recommendations will be presentedto the caretaker cabinet for an approval,” he added.
It was stated during the briefing that implementation had been made on thedecision to remove politically-appointed personalities in the boards ofdirectors of the said companies, while the law department apprised themeeting about the legal mechanism to close down public sector companies andother legal matters pertaining to them.
Secretaries concerned also gave a detailed briefing about the mattersrelated to the public companies of their respective departments.
On Thursday, it was reported that all “unnecessary” public sector companiesformed by the outgoing Punjab government would be disbanded by CM Askari.Out of 71, at least 62 companies were active.
Besides close scrutiny of the finances of the companies, the caretaker CMhad also ordered to remove all political appointees from their posts aswell and said that some of the “appointments were due to their politicalposition, such as PML-N’s Qamarul Islam, while others were appointed byvirtue of their office”.
The PML-N’s Punjab government had landed into hot water after NAB haddecided to initiate graft proceedings against the government pertaining toRs 80 billion embezzlements last year.