IHC seeks response to sale of official vehicles

The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday sought comments from the cabinet secretary in a case against the Cabinet Division’s decision to sale out the government vehicles to Grade-20 and above officers on nominal rates under the monetisation policy.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddique was hearing a petition filed by GM Chaudhry Advocate against the auction of government vehicles to the decision makers of public offices on throwaway prices. The petitioner submitted before the court that the said policy would be implemented from January 1, 2012, with a purpose of observing austerity and eliminating any possibility of misuse of official vehicles.
He said, however, the step by the cabinet secretary was similar to dispose of precious public vehicles forever on throwaway prices through a loot sale in violation of rules as the civil servants working in BPS-20 to 21 were the decision-makers at their relevant public offices. The petitioner cited the prime minister and cabinet secretary as respondents.
He said it was beyond imagination that the maximum pay scale for the employees working in BPS-21 and BPS-22 was Rs 76,400 and Rs 85,700, but the officials working in the same grades would enjoy the transport allowance of Rs 77,430 and Rs 95,910 under the said policy.
The petitioner informed the court that according to the policy of monetization of transport, the civil servants working in BPS-20 to 21, who had been provided public transport, may be given the first option to purchase the allocated cars on depreciated price as per prescribed formula with 15 percent annual depreciation for each completed year of life of the vehicles, but not less than Rs 0.2 million for 1000cc cars and Rs 0.25 million for 1300cc cars.
The lawyer maintained it had also been learnt that all the ministries had started spending huge amounts on maintenance and repairing of vehicles in possession of the civil servants of BPS-20 to 22 before the formal hand over to the said officers from January 1.