PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa excise department has recovered its official vehicle allotted to former chief minister Mahmood Khan from the roadside, claim officials.

They told Dawn that it was not the job of the excise department to recover such vehicles from former lawmakers and government functionaries but the recovery of ex-CM Mahmood Khan’s vehicle came on the orders of the excise secretary.

They said the departments, which allotted official vehicles, were supposed to get the same back from the former public representatives.

“If the Chief Minister’s Secretariat asks us [excise department] for a vehicle to be allotted to an official or a public officeholder, then it [CM’s Secretariat] is responsible for the recovery of that vehicle,” an excise department official told Dawn.

He said it was a common practice to get official vehicles back from the outgoing or former lawmakers and allot them to their successors.

On June 2, excise secretary Ihsanullah wrote a letter to the director-general (excise) expressing displeasure over his failure to retrieve the department’s vehicles from “unauthorised persons, private entities, political representatives, former members of the provincial and national assemblies, and former ministers and senators.”

He ordered the recovery of all vehicles of the department from former MPAs, MNAs, senators, ministers, chief minister, and assembly’s speaker and deputy speaker within 24 hours.

In the reply to the communication, the DG informed the secretary about the recovery of all vehicles of the department from former elected members.

However, the secretary pointed out that a Land Cruiser vehicle was still parked at the house of the former chief minister and said the failure of the relevant staff members to recover that vehicle was tantamount to “misconduct, dishonesty, concealment of fact, misuse of government assets and provision of concocted information to the secretary.”

The directorate formally informed the secretary’s office next day that the department had no intimation from the quarters concerned about any of its vehicles being “in the use” of the former chief minister. It, however, revealed the recovery of the vehicle allotted to the ex-CM.

On June 3, the department also conducted raids on the houses of former ministers Kamran Bangash and Tamir Saleem Jhagra, Shahram Khan Tarakai and Atif Khan and MPA Fazal-i-Ilahi but didn’t find any of its vehicles there.

When contacted, excise secretary Ihsanullah initially said its vehicles were required to be retrieved from the former lawmakers. He, however, failed to name the department supposed to do the job.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2023