Fact-check: Has the South Punjab secretariat been shut down?

An opposition lawmaker has claimed that the new government in Punjab has done away with the South Punjab civil secretariat, set up in 2020 to improve service delivery in the southern areas of Pakistan’s most populous province.

The claim is misleading.

Claim

On July 25, while addressing the National Assembly, politician Zain Hussain Qureshi said that when his political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, was in power from 2018-2022 in Punjab, they set up a civil secretariat in South Punjab, as well as allocated funds to it.

He then claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition government in Punjab, which came to power in February, has “rolled back” all those measures.

“They have shut down our [South Punjab] secretariat as well,” Qureshi said.

Fact

Government officials and budget documents confirm the South Punjab secretariat, located in Multan and Bahawalpur, has not been shut down, as of now, but several Lahore-based civil secretaries have been given additional charge rather than appointing full-time secretaries in South Punjab.

A senior official at the South Punjab secretariat in Multan spoke to Geo Fact Check, on the condition of anonymity, from the office landline and said that the South Punjab secretariat was “functional”. He explained that the secretaries sat in two offices, one in Multan and the other in Bahawalpur, and both offices were operational.

“I am speaking to you right now sitting in my office at the secretariat,” he said, adding that while he can’t predict what the future of the secretariat would be, as of now the secretariat was “active.”

The official, however, added that the South Punjab secretariat was being shifted to a new building in the coming weeks.

Another official, who also asked not to be named, said that the new government has to fill some of the vacancies at the secretariat and that some of the departments had secretaries based in Lahore who had been given additional charge of their respective departments in the southern region.

Critics see this as a move that undermines the independence and efficiency of the South Punjab secretariat.

Additionally, Azma Zahid Bokhari, the information minister in Punjab, also refuted the online claims. “No, the South Punjab secretariat is functional,” she added.

Bokhari then shared that an amount of Rs2,583,350,000 has been allocated in the 2024 provincial budget for all the departments at the secretariat.

“There are 17 secretaries’ offices at the South Punjab secretariat. Out of these, seven secretaries are regularly posted, while nine secretaries from Lahore hold additional charges of their respective departments,” she explained, adding that the post of secretary for specialised health in South Punjab was currently vacant.

Geo Fact Check also scrutinised the document of Punjab’s Annual Development Program (2024-2025), and found that Rs7,407 million had been allocated for the construction of a new South Punjab secretariat as well as Government Officer Residences (GORs) in Bahawalpur and Multan.

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