ISLAMABAD, May 24: The government on Monday announced the transfer of Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani to the commerce ministry as its secretary, to fill a post that had been lying vacant for three years.

A notification said the interior ministry's additional secretary Chaudhry Abdul Rauf would act as the secretary for the time being. Establishment division sources told Dawn that an additional secretary in the prime minister's secretariat, Asif Hayat, was likely to be appointed interior secretary.

They said Mr Hayat was working in BS-21 and would have to be promoted to BS-22 to become a secretary, possibly after Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali returned from a five-day visit to Saudi Arabia.

According to another notification, Kamran Aslam has been appointed additional secretary in the commerce ministry. An secretariat group official, Malik Afzal, who was an officer on special duty, has been appointed joint secretary in the tourism ministry.