Game of musical chairs continues

Punjab gets 5th CS, 7th IGP under current govt

LAHORE:

A game of musical chairs on the top administrative posts in Punjab continues as the PTI-led provincial government has got the chief secretary replaced for the fourth and the inspector general of police for the sixth time.

According to a notification, Kamran Ali Afzal, a BS-22 Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) officer, who was serving as Secretary of Industries and Production, was posted as Chief Secretary. Outgoing Chief Secretary Jawwad Raffique Malik, also a BS-22 PAS officer, was posted as the Industries and Production Secretary. Sardar Ali Khan, a BS-21 officer serving as Managing Director of Punjab Safe Cities Authority, was posted as Provincial Police Officer, or IGP.

He replaced IGP Inam Ghani who was posted as Inspector General of Pakistan Railway Police. The approval for the appointments was granted by the federal cabinet on Tuesday.

The new chief secretary, who belongs to the 21 Common batch, had earlier served as federal finance secretary, special secretary and additional secretary. He also served as additional secretary at Prime Minister Office and in Punjab on different posts.

Kamran Afzal is a PhD in Political Economy and Masters of Public Policy and Management from the University of Melbourne and Masters in Economics from Government College, Lahore. He had done A-Level from Aitcheson College.

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He is the fifth chief secretary since the PTI took charge of the provincial government. When the PTI came to power in Punjab, Akbar Hussain Durrani was the chief secretary, who was replaced in October 2018 with Yousaf Naseem Khokhar. Khokhar was replaced by Azam Suleman and later Jawwad Raffique ws appointed as the chief secretary.

According to sources, while the other officers were replaced for not being able to properly handle the administrative affairs, Major (retd) Suleman was removed on political grounds. The rate of heads rolling in the police department is worse, where the seventh chief has been appointed since the present government took charge.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2021.