Bureaucracy reshuffle: CM’s principal secretary transferred

Nadeem Hassan Asif replaces Tauqeer Ahmed at top Secretariat seat.

LAHORE: Nadeem Hassan Asif has been made the principal secretary to the chief minister in place of Dr Tauqeer Ahmed.

Dr Ahmed had long been unpopular with members of the Punjab Assembly from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Unification Bloc because he was perceived as cold and unresponsive to lawmakers’ concerns.

Now with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf threatening to leech away more PML-N members after convincing MPA Shahid Mehmood Khan to ditch the ruling party last week, the Punjab government decided that a bureaucrat more popular with lawmakers should be the chief minister’s principal secretary, said officials privy to the development. Asif is held in high regard by MPAs, said the officials.

Dr Ahmed was transferred to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat as secretary (coordination).

The government also transferred Sardar Akram Javed, member (judicial) of the Board of Revenue, and posted him as Social Welfare Department secretary.

Ehsan Bhutta, additional secretary (administration), was transferred and posted as Vehari district coordination officer.

Ali Bahadur Qazi, additional secretary to the CM, was transferred and posted as additional secretary at the Services and General Administration Department.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd,  2012.