Punjab government unilaterally extends chief secretary’s leaves

LAHORE, Nov 06 (NNI): The Punjab government on Sunday, once again unilaterally extended the leaves of Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal for a month.
This is the fourth time his leave has been extended.
Following the extension in Afzal’s leaves, Punjab Planning and Development Board Chairman Abdullah Sumbal will continue to perform as the acting chief secretary on a look-after-charge basis.
A notification in this regard was issued by the Service and General Administration Department of the Punjab government on Sunday.
Sources said that Afzal had not applied to extend his leaves but he has no plans to join the office of chief secretary any time soon since he is believed to be on leaves in ‘protest’.
Afzal first, he went on leaves for 14 days from September 17 to September 30.
On September 30, the leave of Punjab CS was extended from October 1 to October 7. Following the expiry of his vacation, his seat remained vacant for the entirety of October 8.
Later, the Punjab government had extended his leaves from October 8 to November 6 after midnight on October 9.
On Sunday, his leaves were extended from November 7 to December 6. While the notification was supposed to carry a signature from the chief secretary but since he is on leaves, the field was left unsigned.
It is pertinent to mention that Kamran Ali Afzal, a basic pay scale (BPS) grade 22, had refused to work with the Punjab government led by Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.
Elahi, though, has not moved to permanently replace Afzal as the chief secretary. Instead, he has decided to continue with Sumbal, a BPS-21 officer of the provincial administrative services, on temporary charge basis. NNI