The Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat is buzzing with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers and leaders, who have kicked up political activities ahead of possible general elections later this year.
Credit goes to PML-N President Nawaz Sharif who made the secretariat friendly to the ruling party in Punjab, as his brother Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had kept the government building out of bounds for most party workers.
Several PML-N workers were of the view that the CM’s Secretariat was now becoming a place to share their grievances with party leaders and get their help.
The CM’s Secretariat remained a forbidden place for party workers since 2008 after Shahbaz assumed charge as chief minister. Its doors were opened only for selected party leaders and close aides to the Sharifs.
The chief minister’s indifference discouraged and even annoyed party workers, who repeatedly complained about Shahbaz’s policy in party meetings. A senior PML-N leader told Pakistan Today that several party members believed that Shahbaz was treating them like lowly people. According to him, PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafiq played a significant role in convincing Nawaz to change the policy and make the secretariat a friendly place for PML-N workers in order to heal their grievances. He said that Nawaz replaced Dr Tauqeer Shah with Nadeem Hasan Asif as principal secretary to the CM. PML-N sources said that Shah had earned the repute of a rude person, and was deliberately appointed by Shahbaz to keep party workers at arm’s length. Nawaz picked Nadeem Asif, a former home secretary, additional chief secretary and Lahore division commissioner, because of his socialising skills.
Sources said the chief minister’s son Hamza Shahbaz after being empowered to handle the secretariat’s affairs, also stirred displeasure among party leaders and workers. He has also been instructed to be polite and gentle with party workers coming to the secretariat to get their jobs done on priority basis, sources added.
They said that Nawaz had also decided to appoint his handpicked persons as assistants and advisors to the CM to keep an eye on the performance of the Punjab government. Nawaz also advised the CM to improve his government’s performance and be available to party leaders and workers, sources added.
However, former PML-N information secretary Khawaja Imran Nazir denied the impression that the CM’s Secretariat was ever unwelcoming to party leaders and workers. He said that nowadays political activities at the building had increased because of approaching elections.