The federal secretariat is badly in need of such senior officers, some of whom are considered brilliant and talented, and so is the demand of some other provincial secretariats mainly Balochistan, but nothing can move the Lahore-based federal bureaucracy out of the province.

The Lahore-based DMG officers in particular are the main reason for the present unprecedented top-heavy bureaucratic set-up in the province. The number of BS-22 and BS-21 federal officers, serving in Punjab is said to be more than such officers in all the three other provinces.

The Establishment Division simply does not figure anywhere as it is totally helpless to bring such officers out of the province.

During the last decade successive governments including that of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and even General Pervez Musharraf made inter-provincial transfer policies for DMGs and police officers. The approval to these policies was always given by the prime ministers/chief executives in consultation with the provinces. There have also been commitments at the highest level to implement these policies in letter and in spirit, but it never happened.

There are very limited openings for BS-21 or BS-22 officers in the provincial establishments but what is called the ever-growing gang of Lahore-based DMGs has succeeded in expanding their share to unprecedented level.

In the past a very few posts were offered at senior levels-BS-21 and BS-22 — in the provincial establishment that included the position of chief secretary, BS-22, and three posts of BS-21 officers as additional chief secretaries, chairman planning and development department and senior member board of revenue. Besides these federal positions, the post of inspector general of police has also been offered to a BS-21 officer.

Today Lahore has the chief secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa in BS-22, who is retiring soon but is expected to get extension because of his "good work" during the last year general elections. Randhawa is reaching the age of superannuation after over 30 years of service but he has been out of Punjab for hardly a few years.

There is no other BS-22 post in the province but Kamran Rasool despite being in BS-22 is also serving in the province as president of the Bank of Punjab. Before joining his present assignment, Kamran was running the Chaudhries’ industries while taking leave from the government.

Like Randhawa, Kamran has also been out of the province for a very short period during which he briefly served in the Ehtesab Bureau of Saifur Rehman and then as additional secretary in the interior ministry under Shujaat Hussain. IGP Punjab Syed Masud Shah is also in BS-22. For a change Shah is from Frontier.

There are a few more BS-22 officers serving in Lahore but they come directly under the federal government as they serve in the federal institutions like Abdur Rashid Khan, chief of civil service academy Lahore, and Khalid Mehmood, principal administrative staff college Lahore.

To adjust additional senior officers in BS-21, the Punjab government during the recent years had upgraded five posts of provincial secretaries to BS-21. Apparently, it was done to give effect the promotions of the officers but actually it was done to provide a broader base to the Lahore-based DMGs in their own province.

Though the upgraded posts were five in number, the number of existing BS-21 officers belonging to federal services is too high thus forcing the Punjab-based bureaucracy to think of upgrading all the posts of provincial secretaries to BS-21.

According to details, the BS-21 federal officers serving in the province include Tariq Mehmood, principal secretary to governor, who has been out of the province only once for a year or so in Frontier; Muhammad Jamil, additional chief secretary, never out of the province; Muhammad Humayun Farshori, chairman planning and development department; Salman Siddique, secretary finance, who has been in the federal government for a small period of time; Sabtain Fazal Halim, secretary communications and works, once served in Wapda that too in Lahore; Muhammad Iqbal Sheikh, member board of revenue, served in centre for a short period; Muhammad Ziaur Rehman, senior member board of revenue, served in centre for a brief stint; Major (retd) Fayyaz Bashir, secretary industries, never served out of the province; Ghulam M Sikandar, principal secretary to chief minister Punjab; Anwar Saleem Ahmad, member board of revenue, because of his health reasons the officer is not moved out of the province; Muhammad Athar Tahir, secretary provincial transport authority Punjab, never served out of Punjab; Sajid Hussain Chattha, a non-DMG serving as secretary forest in the province.

In BS-21 the police officers have their due share in the province in the form of additional IGPs including Saeedullah Khan, Jehangir Mirza, Irfan Mehmood, Tariq Pervez, M Sharif Virk and Ahmed Naseem, who is IG Railways Lahore.

There are some OSDs also including Dr Safdar Mehmood, a BS-22 officer of the secretariat group, who are though attached with the Establishment Division but allowed to be based in Lahore.