PESHAWAR: Mohammad Azam Khan, an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mr Khan has replaced Hammad Owais Agha, who has quietly relinquished his charge before proceeding on leave.

Azam Khan, a grade-21 officer of the renamed District Management Group, is the secretary sports, culture and tourism as well as the director general, Galiyat Development Authority.

He will continue to hold the charge, official sources said. Mr Khan will assume the charge of his new assignment on Monday, officials said.

Azam Khan had previously served as additional chief secretary, Fata, for a brief stint, but had to leave the charge following a row with Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan. He has also served as secretary home and tribal affairs and commissioner, Peshawar.

Officials familiar with the development say that the decision to bring in Khan to replace Hammad was taken during Imran Khan’s visit to Peshawar on Jan 11, but it was implemented in a hush-hush manner due to inexplicable reasons. These officials say that Mr Hammad’s services will be surrendered to the federal government for further posting.

They say that the new ACS’s immediate challenges would be to expedite the exceedingly slow pace of funds utilisation, presently standing at a measly 20 per cent with half of the financial year over, caused mainly due to fear of what some officials believe an over-hyper Ehtesab Commission, and set about making annual development programme for the new financial year.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2016