ISLAMABAD: Before heading to Lahore for the weekend, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered a number of changes in the federal bureaucracy; the most notable among them being the appointment of a new secretary to head the all-important Ministry of Water and Power.

Most of the postings and transfers, however, were of a “routine nature”, those privy to the workings of the top bureaucracy told Dawn on Friday.

“Except for the appointment of new secretaries for water and power, ports and shipping, the dozen or so postings and transfers announced by the Prime Minister’s Office are the run-of-the-mill kind. It would be wrong to infer that the government was making these changes under pressure from the protesting parties camped out on D-Chowk,” a serving grade 22 officer told Dawn.

Also read: Overbilling in the dark

Younas Dhaga will replace Nargis Sethi as the top bureaucrat at the Ministry of Water and Power and lead the government’s efforts to tackle loadshedding.

Insiders term changes a routine matter, say govt under no pressure to shake up bureaucracy

According to government insiders, Ms Sethi opted for leave prior to retirement (LPR) after the over-billing fiasco, as the prime minister wanted to make her an ‘officer on special duty’. She is due to retire in December.

A Memon from Sindh, Mr Dhaga has a bit of a reputation as a man who gets things done. One of his colleagues called him ‘a deliverer’, but said that the challenges at power ministry were quite substantial and only time would tell if he would be able to make any difference. However, Mr Dhaga will have the complete support of Fawad Hassan Fawad, additional secretary at the PM’s Office and the PM’s most trusted aide.

Initially, a government source told Dawn, Mr Dhaga wasn’t interested in taking the new assignment, but was persuaded by Mr Fawad on the assurance that he would be allowed to work without interference from his many political bosses. This ministry is the only one in the current set-up to have a federal minister, a state minister, an adviser to the prime minister as well as being under the direct supervision of both the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister.

At the Ministry of Water and Power, Mr Dhaga will be supervising Sohail Akbar Shah, who is technically his senior. “Mr Shah may opt to be posted somewhere else, or he can continue working under the new arrangement,” a source said.

Before this assignment, Mr Dhaga was working as the ad­­ditional secretary in-charge of the housing ministry.

Another important posting is that of Khizar Hayat, who has been appointed the new secretary for ports and shipping, often considered a lucrative assignment.

Mr Hayat has previously worked with the Punjab government in various capacities and enjoys a good rapport with the Sharif brothers.

“Of course, it’s a choice assignment and Mr Hayat has been picked because of his working relationship with the PML-N leadership and solid reputation as a status-quo bureaucrat,” a government source confided to Dawn. Mr Hayat was previously working as chief secretary for Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Mirza Sohail Amir, a grade-21 officer from Punjab has been promoted to grade 22 and posted as religious affairs secretary. According to a government official, Mr Amir was eyeing the position of Punjab chief secretary. His transfer to the federal government and that too in a relatively unimportant department, was quite surprising.

Other changes included the transfer of Sikandar Ismail from religious affairs to overseas Pakistanis as secretary; Anwar Baloch from FBR to Chairman, Export Processing Zones Authority, Karachi.

Additional Secretary Finance Haseeb Athar has been made secretary of the Federal Ombudsman; Rashida Malik, an OSD, has been given charge of Climate Change; Additional Secretary Imtiaz Tajwar will now act as Executive Director Navtec; while Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Nargis Ghello will be chairperson of State Life Karachi.

Sharukh Arbab, a grade 21 officer from KP, will now look after the housing ministry; Abid Ali, a grade 20 officer from KP, has been made AJK chief secretary; the additional secretary of the Establishment Division has been made a special secretary.

Hamid Ali has been moved from Interior Division to Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) as its new secretary, whereas, ED Navtec Khalid Anees has been asked to report to the Establishment Division.

Cabinet huddle

Separately on Friday, the prime minister met with senior members of his cabinet, which, according to one of his senior aides, was a routine sitting to keep abreast of developments emerging as a result of the ongoing sit-ins at D-Chowk.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt Gen Retd Abdul Qadir Baloch and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal were present at the huddle.

When asked, an aide said there were chances that the government may reach an agreement with the Pakistan Awami Tehreek as talks with Dr Tahirul Qadri were still on. But there was no progress as far as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was concerned.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2014