The Punjab government has moved a summary to the Punjab Assembly with a plea to remove the grade restriction with the office of the District Coordination Officer (DCO), a step that according to many is being taken to save the ‘blue-eyed’ incumbent Lahore DCO Ahad Khan Cheema, Pakistan Today has learnt. Per details, the Local Government Department has moved a summary to the Punjab Assembly secretariat to unlink the condition of a specific grade from the office of the DCO. Reliable sources however revealed that the move is meant to save the skin of DCO Ahad Khan Cheema who is still in Grade 18 and has already enjoyed the most lucrative posts of the Higher Education Department secretary and the Lahore DCO at a very early stage in his career. Interestingly, Cheema has been in the “limelight” and has remained very controversial recently due to his involvement in the “mess” created in the online system of the educational boards of Punjab.
A judicial commission was set up to probe into the loopholes in the computerised online system introduced during the tenure of Ahad Cheema as the HEC secretary, wherein Dr Majid Naeem was placed in the top slot of IT consultant. The commission headed by a Lahore High Court judge heard all stakeholders and raised several questions as to why Cheema was placed on a post higher than his grade initially as HEC secretary and then as DCO Lahore. Sources further revealed that in its recommendations the commission posed several questions to the Punjab government and one them being was about posting a junior officer as DCO, which had put a lot of pressure on the government.
Meanwhile, a writ petition is already pending in the LHC against Cheema, a grade 18 officer, being posted as DCO Lahore. Sources revealed that the government has taken this step in response to the pressure around the posting of Lahore DCO, whose role in different positions is being challenged. The move will enable the government to justify the posting of a junior officer on the most coveted post. A senior officer, seeking anonymity, said, “Posting a junior officer who cannot handle the affairs of a department on a senior post was in itself a bad move, since it is making other officers focus on establishing connections instead of on their performance. In a metropolitan such as Lahore, it was bound to become controversial because such blunders cannot hide for long. The recent steps the government is taking will also be counterproductive.”
