PM appoints Suleman as new Intelligence Bureau chief

Top slot had been lying vacant for more than a month after retirement of Aftab Sultan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday finally appointed Dr Suleman Khan as director general (DG) of the civilian spy agency, the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The coveted slot had been lying vacant for more than a month after the retirement of Aftab Sultan.

A career-police officer, Dr Suleman was heading the IB’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter as joint director on deputation before his promotion. He has to his credit a number of counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations in K-P.

Earlier on Wednesday, PM Abbasi had chaired a top-level meeting which promoted Dr Suleman along with some other officers from basic pay scale 21 to 22. The news regarding Dr Suleman’s likely appointment as DG IB was exclusively published in The Express Tribune and Daily Express on Thursday.

In another top-level reshuffle at the IB, Academy Commandant of the IB Mehr Khaliqdad Lak was also appointed as National Police Academy (NPA) commandant which functions under the administrative control of interior ministry.



The IB, however, does not report to any ministry and functions under the PM. After assuming charge, the new DG would appoint commandant IB Academy. The related notifications regarding Dr Suleman’s appointment as IB chief and that of Lak at the NPA were issued Monday evening.

Sources said the month-long delay in the appointment of DG IB had much to do with the pending promotion of Dr Suleman which was finally granted in the high-level huddle presided over by the PM on Thursday.

Following the retirement of Sultan on April 2, the PM reviewed a number of names but did not make a final choice. Originally, the premier considered three names – IB Academy Commandant Mehr Khaliq Dad Lak, IB Joint Director Fawad Asadullah and Dr Suleman, said the sources.

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

Of these candidates, only Fawad Asadullah and Shujaatullah Qureshi belong to the IB – both in BPS-21. All other officers belong to Police Service of Pakistan and are now serving in BPS-22.

Officials close to the PM said that Abbasi’s government wanted to give Sultan yet another extension as DG but Sultan was not interested.

Sultan was first appointed as DG IB in October 2011 by then PM Yousaf Raza Gilani. In March 2013, he was appointed IGP in Punjab by caretaker PM Mir Hazar Khan Khoso ahead of general elections held in May 2013.

The next month, in June 2013, the then PM Nawaz Sharif appointed Sultan as DG IB. He retired from service in BPS-22 in 2014 and was given annual extensions in service twice before being given a two-year extension by Sharif in February 2016.