Sikandar Sultan Raja – a career bureaucrat of good repute

Newly-appointed chief election commissioner wins trust of both treasury and opposition benches

ISLAMABAD: In an environment of near-constant political turmoil, earning the trust of both treasury and opposition benches is a feat worth giving credit to.

After around a dozen fruitless meetings, a parliamentary committee, comprising lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, finally evolved consensus on the name of Sikandar Sultan Raja as the new chief election commissioner (CEC) on Tuesday.

Raja, a career bureaucrat with a good reputation, emerged as a consensus candidate for the post. He is not only the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s principal secretary Saeed Mehdi, but also the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s favourite CDA chairman Amir Ahmed Ali.

Raja has recently retired as the Railways secretary. His father, Major (retd) Sultan Ahmed, was a retired army officer.

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Born in Bhera village of Punjab’s Sargodha district, he obtained early education from the Government High School, Bhera, completed Matriculation and Intermediate from Cadet College Hassan Abdal, and did his MBBS from King Edward Medical College before securing the LLB degree from Punjab University.

Raja, after passing CSS exams in 1987 and joining the District Management Group (DMG), started his long career as a bureaucrat from the post of assistant commissioner in Islamabad. He also served as the director general of Punjab’s excise and taxation department, provincial secretary communications and works, provincial secretary services and general administration (S&GAD), provincial secretary local governments and community development.

Raja was also appointed as the DG Immigration and Passports in the federal government besides serving as the chief secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He also served as the federal secretary on petroleum and the secretary of state and frontier regions (Safron).