Sharif’s trusted bureaucrat among 15 elevated to grade-22

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi promoted on Monday a civil servant trusted by former prime minister Nawaz Shairf to grade 22 among 15 other senior civil servants.

Fawad Hassan Fawad is currently working as the principal secretary to the PM. He held the same position with Sharif as well with whom he also served in Punjab on several positions.

According to sources, Fawad left the meeting as soon as his name came up for consideration.



Abbasi chaired the meeting of the high-powered selection board on Monday and Fawad was the senior-most bureaucrat on the list. He was ranked 44th on the seniority list issued by the Establishment Division in its last board meeting.

This was the third such meeting in a span of just three months. The previous PM had convened just one such meeting in nearly 10 months. The previous meeting of the board was held in October this year.

As many as seven grade-22 officers will be retiring by the end of this year and in the first month of next year.

Fawad is considered as one of the most powerful bureaucrats.

Last year, Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar accused him of manipulating the bureaucracy and “not giving due respect” to politicians in the ruling camp.

The powerful civil servant had also been criticised by several federal ministers for “pressing and dictating them”.

Sources in the Establishment Division confirmed that Fawad did not enjoy the freedom with the incumbent PM as he used to during the tenure of the previous one.

The PM also promoted 15 other civil servants of whom 11 were from Pakistan Administrative Service, two from police service; two from the secretariat group and one from the foreign service.

Pakistan Police Service’s Meher Khaliq Dad Lak, who was serving in the Intelligence Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency’s Director-General Bashir Memon, was also promoted to grade 22.

The vacant seat in the information service group could not be filled as one on the list, former Press Information Officer Rao Tehseen, was not promoted because of an impending inquiry against him in connection with Dawn Leaks.

Acting head of PTV

The government on Monday gave Secretary of the Ministry of Information Nawaz Sukhera the additional charge of Paksitan Television’s managing director for three months.

The post has been vacant since February 28 last year.



Meanwhile, Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb told The Express Tribune that although the post of MD had been advertised, no “brilliant person applied for the post.”

She said the post would again be advertised and a full-time professional MD would soon be appointed.

Similarly, a senior official of the ministry stated that the PM recently approved the restructuring plan for the PTV.

The ministry’s record showed that PTV had incurred a loss of Rs3 billion since 2013 and it earns far more from charging public via utility bills than from advertisements on its eight channels.

The state-run institution’s financial position was far better in 2012-11 when it earned a profit of Rs219 million.