LAHORE, Oct 16: As many as 40 government employees, a majority of them low-grade, who were recruited for the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, have been fired by the Punjab government, their only ‘sin’ being they were recruited by former provincial chief executive Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Of those fired, 18 were confirmed employees, and the rest contractual. They were among 110 employees of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat whose services were placed at the disposal of the Services and General Administration department in June and July this year to reduce government expenditure. But, the remaining 70 were adopted by one personage or another in the new setup and absorbed in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat or other government offices.

One of the ‘protected’ officials is stated to be the son of a retired PCS officer considered very close to Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

“We were left as orphans and now deprived of our jobs,” a fired employee told Dawn here on Thursday on the condition of anonymity.

He said the termination of his service belied the government’s recent announcement that services of all contractual employees would be confirmed to save them from unemployment. “It looks they are choosy,” he alleged.

The axe on the 40 employees has fallen at a time when the Chief Minister’s Secretariat has reportedly summoned nearly 300 officials in various ranks working elsewhere in Punjab to handle its expanded functions, contradicting the government’s austerity claims.

Interestingly, the sacked employees have not been paid their salaries since their transfer to the S&GAD in July this year, making it extremely difficult for a majority of them to make both ends meet.

The termination orders issued to these employees say that contractual employees will get one month’s pay in lieu of one month advance notice, and the regular ones will be paid the salaries and allowances from July 1, 2008, and an extra one month salary (notice period) by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat either by creating supernumerary posts or from its existing budget.

The services of 18 regular employees have been terminated with immediate effect under Section 10 of the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974, which provided termination without notice during initial or extended period of probation, the orders say.

But, a majority of those affected told Dawn they were confirmed (regular) employees and were not on probation.

The order of their termination did not give any reason for the extreme action. And this is a violation of the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974, under which even the officials on probation could only be fired after being assigned solid reasons like gross inefficiency, negligence or corruption, they argued.