IB chief’s appointment awaits premier’s nod

Career officers reluctant to take up civilian spymaster's position

ISLAMABAD: The appointment of Director General Intelligence Bureau (IB) still awaits prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s nod two weeks after the chief of government’s major civilian intelligence arm Aftab Sultan retired.

Despite considering several names, the PM has so far not finalised any name to fill in the vacant slot—in a scenario that is seriously hampering the intelligence agency’s operations since DG IB’s approval is required to conduct field operations in addition to carrying out day to day affairs, official sources told The Express Tribune.

Some of the senior officers out of whom the PM was interested to pick the DG IB conveyed their regrets in accepting the position which is one of the main reasons for delay to fill in the coveted slot of civilian spymaster, it is learnt.

“With the government’s tenure coming to an end next month (May 31) and general elections around the corner, the government wants a favourite candidate at the helm — who can ‘manage’ the situation in favour of the ruling party—the politically motivated assignments, manoeuvring and all that—this is something career officers are reluctant to do—particularly at a time when the government is not going to last long,” said one of the candidates for the DG IB slot, requesting anonymity, whose name was also under consideration.



“In such a situation, accepting the post of DG IB is a gamble that any well reputed officer would be hardly willing to play,” according to the source.

“There’s no guarantee that the DG IB appointed by the government would be allowed to continue during caretaker set-up as it is quite possible that top officials of government departments and civilian agencies would be reshuffled once the interim setup is in place, after May 31.”

Following the retirement of Sultan on April 2, the PM has reviewed a number of names for DG IB appointment but is yet to make a final choice, officials said. Originally, the premier considered three names; Commandant IB Academy Mehr Khaliq Dad Lak, Joint Director IB Fawad Asadullah and Joint Director IB Dr Suleman Khan, sources said.

Thereafter, a number of other names were also reportedly considered including Inspector General Police Punjab Arif Nawaz Khan, DG Federal Investigation Agency Bashir Ahmed Memon, National Coordinator National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Ihsan Ghani, Joint Director IB Shujaatullah Qureshi and DG National Police Bureau Shaukat Hayat.



Out of these candidates, three officers originally belong to IB; Fawad Asadullah, Dr Suleman and Shujaatullah Qureshi all of whom are officers of basic pay scale 21. All other officers belong to Police Service of Pakistan and are serving in BPS-22. With the exception of Arif Nawaz, other police officers are on deputation in the respective departments.

Officials close to the prime minster said the premier and his government wanted to give Aftab Sultan another extension as DG IB but Sultan himself was no more inclined to continue.

“Next few months are very crucial. General elections are around the corner and we need a trusted confidante to ‘take care of the things.’ A new candidate at the helm would take quite some time to settle down,” sources explained the rationale behind government’s wish that Sultan should continue.

Some officials believed that government functionaries were still trying to persuade Sultan to accept extension for the fourth consecutive term but he was reluctant to accept this offer.