Caretaker Sindh cabinet approves utilization of luxury vehicles as per policy

KARACHI: The Sindh government in compliance with the Supreme Court order has retrieved 149 luxury vehicles from the former cabinet members and government officers and parked in the government transport pool for utilizing them as per uniform policy framed by the federal government.

This was disclosed in the farewell caretaker cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Caretaker Chief Minister Fazal-ur-Rehamn on Monday here at the CM House.

The meeting was attended by all the cabinet members, Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman, Inspector General Sindh Amjad Javed Saleemi, Chairman Project & Development Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, provincial secretaries and others concerned officers.

The agenda of the meeting was to discuss suo moto case No.11/2018 regarding utilization of luxury vehicles by the ministers and the officers beyond their entitlement.

The cabinet was informed that in pursuance of the top court order, the federal government in consultation with the provincial governments has evolved a strategy/Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) for utilization and disposal of luxury vehicles retrieved by the ministers and senior officers.

The strategy/SOPs framed by the federal government in consultation with the provincial governments is as follows:

a) The above 10 years old luxury vehicles requiring major repair/maintenance may be disposed off through open auction after completing legal formalities.

b) Non-custom paid/tampered luxury vehicles irrespective of their model, make and type be handed over to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for allocation to ministries/ divisions/ institutions as per FBR existing rules and if required disposal of the leftover vehicles be arranged through open auction as FBR policy.

c) Luxury vehicles retrieved by the federal government are to be included in the central pool of the cabinet for protocol duties of state guests/visiting foreign delegates, chairman senate, speakers of national assembly, chief justice of high courts and supreme court, governor and chief ministers during their visit to Islamabad.

d) Vehicles confiscated by the provincial governments may be allocated with the approval of the provincial cabinet or disposed off through auction in line with procedure/mechanism formulated by the respective provincial governments.

e) The luxury vehicles retrieved by the federal/provincial government are utilized by the federal/ respective provincial government with approval of the federal/provincial cabinet.

(1) For protocol duties of the president, prime minister, chief justice of supreme court/high court, chairman senate, governors, chief ministers, speakers of national & provincial assemblies, foreign dignitaries.

(2) Allocation for security purpose,

(3) Allocation on geographical/terrain consideration of the areas.

Azam Suleman with the approval of the caretaker chief minister proposed that all the retrieved luxury vehicles may be placed at the disposal of the respective protocol wing of CM’s secretariat/ governor secretariat and S&GACD for protocol purposes of dignitaries.

It was also proposed that all retrieved luxury vehicles of district administration may be placed at the disposal of the commissioners and deputy commissioners for protocol purposes and for usage on geographical/ terrain considerations.

It was proposed to the cabinet that the bullet-proof vehicles may be provided to the officials/ public office holders after making proper assessment based on potential threat and security requirement through Armoured Vehicles’ Entitlement Committee.

It was also proposed to the cabinet that the more than 10 years old luxury vehicles requiring major repair/maintenance, having complete documents, may be disposed off through open public auction after completing codal formalities.

The cabinet approved all the proposals and requested the chief secretary to submit the same in the supreme court of Pakistan on August 6, 2018.