PESHAWAR: Two senior most bureaucrats of the province, who were in the run for the post of chief secretary, have opted to move to Islamabad following the appointment of Dr Kazim Niaz to the top bureaucratic post.

On Wednesday, establishment department issued two separate notifications about the departure of the additional chief secretary planning and development, Dr Shahzad Khan Bangash, and Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR), Dr Mohammad Fakhre Alam Irfan, to the establishment division.

The notification said that Dr Bangash and Dr Irfan, both PAS officers of BPS-21, were relieved of their duties in the KP government enabling them to report to the establishment division Islamabad with immediate effect.

Dr Bangash, who was appointed ACS towards the end of September 2017, spent about two years managing development priorities of PTI governments during of Pervez Khattak and Mahmood Khan.

He was initially being tipped as strong candidate for the post of chief secretary; however, sources said that Peshawar BRT fiasco got in his way.

Dr Bangash, who belongs to 19th common training programme (CTP), is senior to Dr Kazim Niaz, who belongs to 21st CTP batch along with Dr. Irfan.

Sources said that both the officers opted for centre following the appointment of Dr Kazim as chief secretary earlier on October 23. Dr Niaz will take charge of his office on Thursday (today) following the retirement of chief secretary Mohammad Saleem Khan on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2019