Before vacating the office of the Punjab chief minister, Usman Buzdar reportedly ordered his staff to conduct a ‘midnight operation’ to delete all data from the computers of additional secretaries and deputy secretaries of the CM Secretariat.
Most of the deleted information related to directives issued by the chief minister and records of the chief minister’s discretionary grant, worth millions of rupees, according to a report by the News.
Usman Buzdar tendered his resignation on Monday, clearing the post for Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PLM-Q)’s Pervaiz Elahi, who the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hope will help the government defeat the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Upon his departure, it also emerged that the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Punjab Amir Jan occupied three senior level position, and presumably received salaries for each. He serves as Principal Secretary to the CM, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Punjab Energy Department, and also secretary Energy. As the Principal Secretary is responsible for monitoring the ACS Energy, Amir Jan was effectively his own boss.
Usman Buzdar had appointed and dismissed four principal secretaries in three and a half years before hiring Amir Jan, who has also served as ACS for the better part of a year.
Interestingly, the Punjab Energy Department, to which Jan was ACS, is reportedly one of the more well resourced and richest department, with procurements worth multi-billions of rupees.
