MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Ka­­shmir (AJK) government has abolished seven secretary-level posts to fulfil an agreement with the Jam­mu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee seeking a reduction in adm­inistrative expenditures.

According to a handout issued by the Press Information Depart­ment on Wednesday, the abolition was approved by the cabinet at its meeting on Dec 17 last year as part of administrative reforms aimed at austerity and improving the efficiency of the official machinery.

The abolished posts include secretary of transport; secretary of population welfare; secretary of disaster management and civil defence; secretary of tourism and archaeology; secretary of religious affairs and auqaf; secretary of (ex-officio) environmental protection agency; and secretary of information technology.

During the tenure of former prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, several separate secretary-level posts were created even for departments with fewer than 100 regular budgeted employees, placing an additional burden on the exchequer.

His successor, Chaud­hry Anwarul Haq, who frequently spoke of austerity measures during his tenure, did not abolish those posts and instead elevated as many as 10 civil servants to the rank of secretary.

Subsequently, the number of local officers — mos­tly from the AJK Adminis­trative Service, Law Dep­artment and Secretariat Group — holding the status of secretaries to government, including the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR), and secretaries to the president and the prime minister, rose to 26.

Of them, two were currently serving against non-secretary posts and four had been declared as ‘surplus secretaries’.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2026