ISLAMABAD, March 31: Cabinet Division Secretary Kamran Rasul became the first civilian to take charge of defence secretary in a major bureaucratic reshuffle on Saturday.

He replaces Lt-Gen (retd) Tariq Wasim Ghazi, whose contract expires on April 3.

Kamran Rasul is the first civilian to be appointed as defence secretary in the recent history of the country.

According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division, Secretary of Textile Industries Masood Alam replaced Kamran Rasul as cabinet secretary.

Zafar Mehmood, executive director of the State Life Insurance Corporation, was given the acting charge of the Textile Industries Secretary.

Speculations also circulated in the capital about Lt-Gen (retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi, a close confidant of President General Pervez Mushrraf, taking over as the chairman of the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC).

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz accepted the resignation of the PIAC Chairman, Tariq Kirmani, and asked him to stay till his replacement assumed the charge.

Sohail Safdar was appointed as the first inter-provincial coordination secretary.

Mr Safdar, earlier posted as the secretary of the ministry of women development, was last serving as an ‘Oficer on Special Duty’.

Previously, there was no such post as the Inter-Provinical Coordination Committee, headed by Mr Salim Saifullah, was part of the Cabinet Division.

The prime minister has already approved the creation of a ministry of inter-provincial coordination, the handout said.

A list of 36 ministries, posted on the Cabinet Division’s website, did not mention the ministry of inter-provincial coordination as a separate entity.