LAHORE: The PTI Punjab government is indecisive about the fate of the controversial public companies especially in the local government department and the luxury vehicles of all such entities impounded on the orders of Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar.

The cars are parked in the basement of a new building in the Civil Secretariat ever since they were impounded around four months ago.

The officials concerned claim they are not rusting and are regularly maintained and driven within the Civil Secretariat every weekend to keep them in a running condition.

The bureaucracy posted for the caretaker Punjab government had listed all the public companies and the vehicles after they were questioned by NAB and the Supreme Court. But their fate hangs in the balance.

Officials on Thursday said the local government department had during the caretaker government cancelled all political appointments in its solid waste management companies in seven districts that include Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and Sialkot, parking companies in Lahore and Faisalabad and nine division level cattle market management companies.

But these companies continued to exist as caretaker chief minister Hasan Askari Rizvi left the decision on the next political Punjab government. Now, the current chief minister is yet to take up the issue despite formal requests.

Sources said that as per initial estimates, the solid waste management companies created by the last PML-N government of Mian Shahbaz Sharif had so far swallowed Rs82 billion. In addition they had also obtained loans from commercial banks and did not retire even a single rupee.

They said the cattle market management committees were created by amending the Local Government Act 2013. They were the only local department companies which were making profit but it was not going into the coffers of the cash-strapped government. They would cease to exist only after the replacement of the present local government law with the new one which the PTI government intends to introduce shortly.

Officials said the other important issue which is pending a decision by the PTI government is the fate of the 38 luxury vehicles recovered from the Shahbaz Sharif era public companies. They include luxury jeeps worth millions of rupees which are not allowed even to the chief secretary.

Officials said the caretaker government had also left the decision on the fate of the vehicles on the next elected government. The present chief minister constituted a committee in his first cabinet meeting to handle the issue.

Comprising Law Minister Raja Basharat and Prosecution Minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, the committee met recently after a lapse of so many days, and the officials concerned were reportedly asked to amend the transport policy of the Services and General Administration Department, which handles the provincial government’s transport pool, so as to provide for the disposal of the impounded vehicles.

Officials said the vehicles were purchased by the independent companies after approval by their boards of governors and the S&GAD transport policy did not apply to them. This policy governs only the vehicles to be used by the Punjab government officials and does not allow any luxury vehicle for anyone.

Sources claimed that there was a debate on whether to auction the vehicles or to put them to some better use. The second option would mean a turf war as to who should use them — ministers, bureaucracy or police.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018