MULTAN  -  Punjab Chief Secretary (CS) Zahid Akhtar Zaman has given a deadline to complete the Civil Secretariat build­ing by December this year.

He expressed these views during a visit to the under-construction build­ing of the Civil Secretariat here on Tuesday. Additional Chief Secretary South Punjab Capt (retd) Saqib Zafar was also accompanied by him.

Secretary Finance Punjab Mujahid Sher Dil, Secretary Services South Punjab Amjad Shoaib Tareen, Com­missioner Aamir Khattak, DC Omar Jahangir, and CEO IDAP Sohail Ashraf were also present.

Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman inspected the construction quality in the secretariat and inquired about the road network and landscaping plan. He said that the government wants to inaugurate the Civil Secretariat by De­cember. CS Punjab further said that the establishment of a separate secretariat was a long-standing dream of the peo­ple of South Punjab.

Shifting the offices of the depart­ments to the Civil Secretariat will ac­celerate the pace of development in the region. The CS directed to plant mango trees in the Civil Secretariat as mangoes were the identity of South Punjab. He warned that there would be no compromise on the construc­tion quality of the project.

The performance of administra­tive secretaries would improve fur­ther by establishing their offices under one roof. Additional Chief Sec­retary South Punjab Capt (retd) Saq­ib Zafar said that the offices of eight departments in South Punjab will be shifted to Civil Secretariat Multan. The design of the secretariat has been prepared in view of the shift­ing of more departments to South Punjab in the future. He concluded that space is available to construct offices for eight more departments in the Civil Secretariat. CEO IDAP Sohail Ashraf said that Rs3.5 billion was being spent on the construc­tion of the Civil Secretariat Complex. The Civil Secretariat was being con­structed on 504- kanal land.