LAHORE - Following successive abortive attempts to pull out of the job, Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Afzal has finally proceeded on 14 days leave handing over charge of the post to chairman Planning & Development Board, Punjab, Muhammad Abdullah Khan Sumbal.
According to the official notification, the Chief Secretary will proceed on 14-day leave from 17th September to 30th September, 2022. The incumbent chief secretary has been caught up in a very awkward situation during the power rift between political parties in Punjab in the last few months.
In the last one and half month, Kamran Ali Afzal had made several requests to the federal government to get him transferred from Punjab as he was not feeling a congenial working relationship with the PTI and PML-Q’s coalition government in Punjab. Kamran requested his transfer from Punjab at least three times to get a new responsibility in the federal government. Also, during a meeting on the dengue outbreak last week, the chief secretary told the officers that it was his last meeting as chief secretary.
Also, the Chief Secretary personally met with the Prime Minister last week and made a request for his transfer. But he was advised to stay put in his current position until his successor is appointed. Earlier, in a letter to the federal government, Kamran had excused himself to continue working as Chief Secretary, Punjab due to his personal reasons.
It is pretty obvious now that the incumbent Chief Secretary does not feel comfortable working with the provincial government of the Punjab. But contrary to what the Chief Secretary thinks, Chief Minister Ch Parvez Elahi had earlier stated that he had no objection working with the CS Kamran as he enjoyed a very pleasant working relationship with him.
He had also desired to retain him as Punjab’s top bureaucrat. But, on the other hand, Kamran Afzal is visibly reluctant to work with the new chief executive after losing his say on matters regarding appointments and transfers of senior officials. Afzal also has in his mind Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s consequential statements against the Chief Secretary and IGP on the floor of the Assembly during the presentation of the provincial budget in June this year.
Apart from this, due to unpleasant relations with the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary had previously stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony of the Cabinet Ministers
