Civil Secretariat Deserted as Balochistan Ministers Stay Away from Offices

QUETTA: Continuous absence of provincial ministers has turned the Civil Secretariat into a graveyard-like place, with petitioners from remote areas returning home without even meeting the concerned ministers, let alone getting their work done.

Chief Minister Balochistan often delivers lectures on merit, but members of his cabinet do not bother to attend their offices. Poor applicants wait for weeks and are forced to leave disappointed.

When people contact the private secretaries of ministers regarding their absence, they are told that the minister has gone to Karachi or Islamabad, or is spending the entire day at the Chief Minister’s House. Officials appear unaware of what poor petitioners from Khuzdar, Zhob, Gwadar and other distant areas go through when they travel to Quetta to get their work done. Some even come after borrowing money or arranging payments, wait for weeks, and then return without a meeting.

Sources said that since the formation of the provincial cabinet, only two or three ministers attend offices occasionally, remaining absent for four to five weeks at a stretch. Some ministers have not even visited their offices three times in three years and do not take the trouble to meet the public.

Due to this absenteeism, the Civil Secretariat wears a deserted look and seems alive only as a parking lot for official vehicles. Because of the ministers’ lack of attention, provincial secretaries also remain busy with their own routines.

Public circles have strongly demanded that the government ensure the presence of provincial ministers in their offices and the secretariat so that people can at least see them, even if their work is not immediately resolved.