DERA BUGTI, Sept 2: The Balochistan government has decided to restore complete civilian control in the troubled district of Dera Bugti and strictly monitor performance of the officials posted there and keep the local administration out of tribal politics.

As a first step, a new officer has been posted as the deputy commissioner of Dera Bugti and instructed that he and other officers should not get involved in local tribal politics and make their presence felt by working to restore peace.

The outgoing deputy commissioner lived in Sui town instead of the district headquarters. It is widely known that the district police officer and other officials also did not attend their offices in Dera Bugti. It affected the writ of the civil administration in the entire district.

“We have decided to restore peace and normalcy in Dera Bugti,” Balochistan Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad said during a recent visit to the district. “We want to allay a perception that the district is a no-go area and to ensure free movement of people without any hurdle.”

It has been decided that disciplinary action will be taken against government officials and teachers found absent from their places of duty. All hospitals and educational institutions will be reopened and made functional.

The government will take steps to ensure that government institutions effectively solve the problems of the people of Dera Bugti and assuage their sense of uncertainty and insecurity.

The chief secretary and senior bureaucrats visited Dera Bugti to assess the situation on the orders of the Supreme Court which has asked the government to improve the situation in the district and ensure free movement of people.

Officials of various government departments briefed the chief secretary on the performance of different departments and apprised him of the difficulties they faced in performing their duty.

It was observed at the meeting that most of the officials posted in Dera Bugti do not perform their duties. The treasury officer does not know the exact number of employees who are drawing salary. Most of the educational institutions, including an intermediate college in Dera Bugti and a girls’ school in Sui, have not been functioning for two years, but teachers and other staff are regularly drawing salary.

The same is the situation in the health department. “We have only six doctors and not a single lady doctor in the entire district,” district health officer Naeem Zarkoon informed the meeting.

“We badly need doctors and other staff, especially female doctors, because a majority of patients are women,” he said.

A delegation of tribal elders led by MNA Ahmadan Bugti and Mir Ghulam Qadir Masoori Bugti also met the chief secretary and spoke about apathy of the district administration to people’s problems.

The meeting suggested that the government should pay more attention to resolving issues in health and education sectors and problems of water supply and employment in the PPL and OGDC.

The issue of landmines which took lives of hundreds of people while disabled a large number of others was also discussed.

“The victims of landmines include women and children.” Mir Ahmadan Bugti said, adding that security forces should clear all areas of landmines to protect lives of innocent people.

Mr Bugti blamed the PPL and OGDC for tribal insurgency and the law and order problem. “They do not implement the agreement signed with the tribesmen,” the tribal elders said.

He said the PPL and OGDC were not recruiting local engineers and diploma holders despite having signed an agreement in this regard. They were also not fulfilling their obligation regarding development of the area.

Residents of Dera Bugti, on the other hand, were of the view that influential tribal waderas grabbed most of the jobs. “We poor Bugtis are not getting any job,” Nizamuddin Bugti told Dawn.

“The people of Dera Bugti district are facing unemployment but the PPL and OGDC are not giving jobs to them,” the tribal elders complained and said that the work of construction of a hospital by the PPL should be handed over to the Frontier Corps.

After the meetings, the chief secretary said that he had come to Dera Bugti to assess the actual situation.

“It is true that officials posted in the district are not performing their duties which has hampered the development process in the area,” Mr Babar Yaqoob said. People of Dera Bugti have been suffering because of the sheer negligence of officials of various departments.

About the absence of government employees, including district officials in Dera Bugti, he sought detailed reports from the secretaries concerned.

“I assure you that Dera Bugti will be brought in the mainstream with the support of Chief Minister Aslam Raisani and no-one will be allowed to deprive people of the district of their genuine rights,” he said.

He directed the planning and health engineering department to complete water schemes in time. “The finance department should release funds for all uplift schemes in Dera Bugti,” he said.

Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Miran Jan Kakar, Home Secretary Nasibullah Bazai, Inspector General of Police Omer Khitab, Finance Secretary Dosteen Khan Jamaldani, Education Secretary Munir Ahmed Badini, Health Secretary Asmatullah Kakar, Public Health Engineering Secretary and Commissioner Sibi Qamar Masood accompanied the chief secretary during the visit.