LAHORE, May 7: MPAs from Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Gujranwala divisions belonging to the ruling coalition partners in provincial government, the PPP and the PML-N, expressed their reservations about the ongoing process of large-scale transfers and postings in Punjab at a meeting here on Wednesday.

It was first of a series of meetings with the lawmakers initiated to address the reservations they had regarding the transfers.

The second such meeting will be held on Thursday (today) in which MPAs from Faisalabad, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions will participate. The third and the last meeting will be held on Friday with public representatives belonging to Lahore and Multan divisions.

The quick consultation, a cabinet member divulged, was aimed at steering the government through the transfer-posting phase so that it could spare time and energies for other issues concerning governance and providing relief to the masses.

Sources said participants of the Wednesday’s meeting complained of postings of some allegedly corrupt officials in their respective constituencies and also of those who, especially in the police department, had been targeting the opposition activists at the behest of previous rulers and still managed to get mainstream postings.

The coalition leadership was requested to review such postings so that these officials could no more indulge in unlawful acts and thus cause embarrassment to the new government.

The sources said the meeting provided a good opportunity for the lawmakers to discuss the issue threadbare and steam off emotions of some of the ‘sentimental’ members, besides ending the mystery shrouding the action.

Many of those who were earlier critical of the transfers changed their stance after listening to the views of other colleagues while both the PML-N and the PPP members showed flexibility and accommodation for each other, they said.

— Amjad Mahmood