LAHORE - The level of public trust in Punjab government is certainly adding up, as Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is taking prompt action on the sufferings, injustice, problems and pains of the people.
The chief minister is circumspect and alive to what is happening around, yet a small but important thing in the stock of the government performances is not leaving a good taste. The character of a Good Samaritan is undoubtedly putting Shahbaz Sharif ahead of his counterparts in other provinces and that matter when students, civil society people interact with him, they also aspire to see him the executive head of their own province or at least perform as such for that period of time.
For sure it is credit of the services of Shahbaz Sharif that he not only feels for the people of his own province but others also. This fact is demonstrated from the quota allocated for students in our educational, research, IT, health and vocational training institutions, moreover his venture to go extra mile in helping the smaller provinces when a calamity hits them.
He is so deeply immersed in the public service that he repels to be called Wazir-e-Aala but Khadam-e-Aala.
How much active and industrious Shahbaz Sharif is can easily be gauged from the fact that he never hesitates visiting the site of developing projects even if it were wee hours of the day or rigours of the rigid weather.
Presiding over important marathon meetings daily and reaching out to the people in distress is hallmark of the concerns he has for the public worries.
Amid all these good notes, another is the prompt notices he takes on the murder, rape, woman harassment, police torture, accidents, deaths due to spurious drugs or alcohol, stealing of babies from hospitals, kidnapping, child abuse, robberies, mass protest against injustice, a saboteur activity so on and so forth.
He calls for immediate report from the concerned DPO, health officer, DCO, or others. In some cases the CM also orders for holding inquiry and submitting report within a shortest time frame. In view of the gravity of the matter and its value for the public, the CM action works remarkably. But a disappointment takes over when no report or findings of the inquiry are officially communicated; the way CM action on an incident is done.
The CM takes notice on scores of incidents in a month but hardly few find the follow-up and what proceedings were carried out following the CM notice remains in the darks in bulk of the cases. Most of the time, it is said in follow-up that the accused has been arrested or the committee has kicked off inquiry yet a quest to see logical end of the matter of remains at the public level.
Apparently it is small matter but not insignificant. It was learnt through a survey that after the CM takes notice, people become inquisitive about the result. And when things remain only at CM action, perception of a sham exercise or a move to instantly nip the mass reaction by the top man inculcates in the mind, majority of the people shared this view during the survey.
They did not hold the CM responsible but the officialdom which, they claim, knows every trick of the trade of hushing up, satisfying, confusing and twisting an issue in addition to avoiding heat coming to it if the facts blow back.
The situation is also not less embarrassing for the media man who has to face questions from the readers or viewers on the issue and no official material is in his hand to feed the public quest. From the observer’s point of view, if notice is taken but the matter remain in limbo or its consequences are not told to the masses, the public begins to believe that the government is lenient on the evil doers whereof its own credibility and efficiency may be compromised on this small but important matter.
Instead of merely issuing huge number of notices on a few incidents, they must be brought to their logical end as it very necessary to curb the crime, calm the masses, improve efficiency of the government and win it public support, the survey finds out.