Key panel green-lights promotion of 36 officers to Grade 22

ISLAMABAD: The high-powered selection board has approved the promotion of 36 officers of Grade 21 from the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), Police Service and Foreign Service of Pakistan to Grade 22.

The approval was given on Wednesday in a meeting, held at the Establishment Division under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar. The promotions were approved after a thorough review of the performance and qualifications of senior bureaucrats.

According to a statement issued by the Establishment Division, 19 officers of the PAS have been promoted to Grade 22. The promoted officers include: Secretary National Food Security Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, Additional Secretary Science & Technology Ambreen Raza, Ali Tahir, pending appointment, Secretary Privatisation Commission Usman Akhtar Bajwa, Special Secretary Economic Affairs Muhammad Hameer Karim, Additional Secretary Religious Affairs Syed Attaur Rehman, Secretary Energy Sindh Musaddiq Ahmed Khan, Chairman FBR Rashid Mahmood, Secretary Petroleum Momin Agha, Secretary Health Nadeem Mehboob, Secretary Education Mohiuddin Ahmed Wani, awaiting appointment Dawood Muhammad Bareech, Special Secretary Commerce Shakeel Ahmed Mangejo, Additional Secretary National Security Division Sadia Sarwat Javed, Secretary to the Prime Minister Asadur Rehman Gilani, Trade Minister in the US Ali Sarfaraz Hussain, Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Chairman Planning and Development Board Punjab Nabeel Ahmed Awan and Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Ahmed Raza Sarwar.

The eight officers promoted from the Police Service of Pakistan include Additional Secretary Communications BA Nasir, IG Police Sindh Ghulam Nabi Memon, Additional IG Punjab Muhammad Farooq Mazhar, Additional IG Sindh Imran Yaqoob Minhas, awaiting appointment Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, Additional IG Motorway Police Muhammad Zubair Hashmi, Muhammad Shahzad Sultan, posted at the National School of Public Policy, and IG Railway Police Rai Muhammad Tahir.

The nine officers promoted from the Foreign Service of Pakistan include Ahmed Naseem Warraich, Rahim Hayat Qureshi, Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, Syed Ahsan Raza Shah, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Nabeel Munir, Saqlain Syeda and Shafqat Ali Khan.

The service record, experience and services of the officers awaiting promotion were taken into consideration during the meeting. Deputy PM Ishaq Dar congratulated the promoted officers and expressed the hope that they would show more hard work and dedication in serving the country.

These promotions have been made to ensure the appointment of experienced and capable officers to high positions in the civil bureaucracy, which will help in further improving the policy-making and governance system.

The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister for Establishment Ahad Cheema, MNA Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Secretary Cabinet Division Kamran Ali Afzal, Secretary Establishment Division Inamullah Khan Dhariko.

According to sources, it was the first meeting of the high-powered selection board which was held at the Establishment Division. It was also the first meeting which was not chaired by the prime minister himself, but by his nominated minister.

According to a report, 13 officers of the PAS could not get promotion, including Secretary Science & Technology Sajid Baloch, Amna Imran Khan, Usman Chachar, Iram Bukhari, Asad Islam Mahini, Captain (retd) Syed Waqarul Hasan, Mujtaba Paracha, Captain (retd) Mahmood, Jawdat Ayaz, Captain (retd) Asif, Tariq Waqar Bakshi, Ahsan Ali Mangi and Hassan Mahmood Yousafzai.

According to sources, the board would meet again on Monday, March 10 and consider the promotion cases of officers of the Secretariat Group, Information Group, Postal Group, Inland Revenue Service, Customs Service, Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service, Military Land and Cantonment Group and Planners Group.