40 senior bureaucrats without postings

List includes nine Grade-22, eight Grade-21 officers

ISLAMABAD:

At least 40 senior bureaucrats, including nine in Grade-22 and eight in Grade-21, have been made officers on special duty (OSDs) in the Establishment Division, which means that they have no postings at present.

These names include some of those officers who held senior positions during the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, such as the principle secretaries to then Prime Minister Imran Khan and then Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

On April 11, 2022, after Imran’s removal from the government, Imran’s principal secretary Azam Khan, Buzdar’s principal secretary Tahir Khurshid and then Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Sanaullah Abbasi were made the OSDs.

Before that, some of them were made OSDs in the Establishment Division over allegations of rigging in the Daska by-election, and the deaths of tourists because of heavy snowfall in Murree district.

The senior officers include former poverty alleviation secretary Muhammad Ali Shahzada, former national heritage secretary Dr Arshad Mehmood, former communications secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik, former Punjab Board of Revenue senior member Babar Hayat Tarar, former director genera of Intelligence Bureau (IB) Dr Muhammad Salman and former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary Shahzad Khan Bangash.

The police officers include former Sindh inspector general Mushtaq Mahar, Fayyaz Ahmad, Inam Ghani, Babar Bakht Qureshi and Agha Mohammad Yousuf. Also the list of OSDs includes officers, who are on long leave or studying abroad.