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LAHORE: The Punjab government has planned to purchase 79 new luxury vehicles for ministers, and parliamentary secretaries with a whopping amount of Rs612.475m.
The escort vehicles for provincial ministers’ security and VVIP protocol duties will also be purchased, the Additional Chief Secretary briefed the Standing Committee of Cabinet on Finance & Development.
After the approval of the incumbent government, the finance department will release the funds along with permission for advance withdrawal of Rs 612.475 million.
ACS further told the Standing Committee that the Maryam Nawaz-led government had recently appointed 29 parliamentary secretaries and assigned them departments under section 3 of the Parliamentary Secretaries Ordinance, 2002. The Ordinance entitles each parliamentary secretary to use one official car both for official and private purposes.
The government has also requested 30 new Toyota Hilux single cabin 4×2 (with special fiber hood installed on the rear) for escort poll of provincial ministers.
Moreover, the Additional Chief Secretary said that the foreign affairs ministry had also requested the Punjab government to provide it with 15 VVIP vehicles, including bulletproof cars, for the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) scheduled next month in Islamabad.
The 23rd council of heads of government (prime ministers) of the SCO was scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Oct 15-16. At the SCO, the federal government is expecting 12 heads of government to attend the meeting.
“The Foreign Office had requested the Punjab government to provide 15 bulletproof/non-bulletproof VVIP vehicles (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota Land Cruiser & Fortuner, etc) for the SCO meeting during the first three weeks of October,” the committee was told.
“As the S&GAD is facing a shortage of vehicles and SUVs, two Toyota Fortuner and 15 Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6 vehicles might also be purchased,” the ACS told the committee and added that in total 76 new vehicles were required to be procured in the transport pool of the S&GAD from authorized dealers of Indus Motor Company Ltd as per quotations at the total cost of Rs612.475 million.
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