ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior on Thursday asked the chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to ensure that state machinery or finances are not used by the PTI for its protest on November 24.

In a letter written to the chief secretary, the ministry said in the wake of the protest call given by the PTI it may be ensured that the provincial government did not utilise state machinery, equipment, officials or finances.

During the last protest held by the PTI on October 5, the capital police while searching the KP House in Islamabad for Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had claimed to have found official weapons, rubber bullets, uncounted teargas shells along with sacks of stones, face masks and seized them.

At a news conference on October 6, the Islamabad police chief had alleged that official resources of KP, including police weapons, clubs, masks and teargas shells, were used by the protesters.

Interestingly, in a letter to the chief secretary, dated Nov 18, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the KP finance department had stated that in addition to Rs230 million already paid to different departments of the provincial government regarding the Oct 5 protest, the request of pending dues amounting to over Rs583 million had also been received from the relevant departments.

“With another similar event approaching on November 24, it is requested that the balance amount of fifty eight crore, thirty eight lac and twenty thousand only be released to all concerned so that services for the next event can be met accordingly”, reads the letter.

The interior ministry on October 6 had constituted a committee to probe the use of government resources and manpower by the KP government in the political rally to Islamabad.

The committee, comprising Additional Secretary Interior Riffat Mukhtar as convener and FIA Additional Director General Munir Masood Marath and a representative of IB as members, was formed to ascertain the number of government vehicles used in the rally besides the number of public officials who took part in the protest.

Apparently after receiving a similar letter from the Establishment Division, KP Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry has also written a letter to government officials across the province asking them to strictly refrain from assisting political activity in official as well personal capacity.

“Being cadre administrator for the officers of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), the Establishment Division expects that in times of heightened political activity, the duty of maintaining law and order is performed with utmost professionalism and neutrality in such situations, the standards of the conduct applicable on government officers as elaborated in Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1964, are the fundamental norm.

“It is, therefore, directed that officers of PAS and PSP in their official as well as personal capacity shall, with reference to the announced demonstration on November 24, strictly refrain from assisting political activity in any manner. This includes allowing or condoning the use state machinery (finance, personnel, machinery or other resources) to assist or facilitate political objectives,” it said.

It said these instructions might be noted for compliance and ommunicated for strict adherence to the divisional commissioners and the deputy inspectors general of police and other PAS/PSP officers “under your jurisdiction.”

It warned that failure to comply with the above instructions shall be viewed adversely and officers found guilty of non-compliance shall be deemed liable for disciplinary action under the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020’.

The chief secretary has further clarified that all officers (belonging to federal, provincial, local government, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies) serving in the province shall comply with these instructions in letter and spirit and failure to do so on part of any officer, shall result in strict disciplinary action under the relevant laws/rules.

Meanwhile, in another letter the chief secretary has asked government functionaries to resist any pressure or temptation to misuse official resources, assets, or authority in support for any political party.

“You must all refrain from providing direct or indirect support to any political party or activity, whether through your person, subordinates or the resources at your disposal,” reads the letter.

The chief secretary told the officers that compliance to political leadership was limited only to the execution of lawful orders aligned with the Constitution adding that the officers were expected to observe professional code of conduct and uphold political neutrality at all costs.

— Peshawar Bureau also contributed to the report

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2024