Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has ordered the immediate removal of Jhang Deputy Commissioner Babar Sahib Din after a vehicle belonging to the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority was used during a jeep rally. The decision followed a video circulating on social media that showed a PERA vehicle moving alongside other vehicles at the three-day Jhang Thal Jeep Rally, which concluded last week.
Reacting to the video on X, the chief minister said using government resources for activities unrelated to official duties was a serious violation of administrative discipline and established policy. She rejected claims that the vehicle had been deployed for security or rescue purposes, explaining that security arrangements fall under the police while emergency services are the responsibility of Rescue 1122. Neither function, she pointed out, falls within PERA’s statutory mandate, so the vehicle’s presence at the rally had no apparent connection with the authority’s prescribed duties.
Following her orders, Punjab’s Services and General Administration Department issued a notification on Sunday confirming the transfer of Babar Sahib Din on the governor’s orders, directing him to report to the department for further instructions. Meanwhile, Jhang District Information Officer Riaz Marth said the rally had been organised with support from private sponsors and had received appreciation from provincial government officials, a point that sits uneasily alongside the chief minister’s insistence that public resources must not be diverted to such events.
The chief minister also shared an October 21 letter from PERA Director General Farrukh Atiq Khan, directing deputy commissioners and chairpersons of District Enforcement and Regulatory Boards to investigate the unauthorised use of PERA vehicles. That letter highlighted that double-cabin vehicles allocated exclusively for PERA field operations were being used for unauthorised purposes, including cases where deputy commissioners had assigned them to assistant deputy commissioners in violation of official policy, and it instructed officials to recover all vehicles being used without authorisation. The removal of the Jhang deputy commissioner therefore reads as both a response to a single incident and a warning to the wider administration that the misuse of government vehicles will be treated seriously.
