ISLAMABAD: Asad Rehman Gilani assumed charge as the new chairman of the National Databse and Registration Authority (Nadra) on Friday.
The post fell vacant after the resignation of Tariq Malik, around a year before the expiry of his three-year term.
During his first day in office, Mr Gilani visited different departments and instructed Nadra personnel to perform their duties efficiently and ensure uninterrupted services to the public.
The Nadra chairman expressed his determination to continue efforts to improve the provision of services and visit the authority’s regional head offices to review the operational activities.
He directed heads of all Nadra departments to clear the backlog of ID card printing over the weekend.
Mr Gilani is a BPS-21 officer of the Public Administration Services (PAS) and is serving as the federal secretary of Board of Investment (BoI).
Under the rules, he has been given the additional charge at Nadra until a new chairman is appointed.
Public Policy Practitioner with 26 years working for the government, Mr Gilani is a permanent civil servant and an officer in the Pakistan Administrative Service. He joined the service in 1996 and has experience of multiple sectors and jurisdictions.
He has served in provincial governments of Balochistan, Punjab and in the Federal government and has been involved in running the Transport, Environment, Housing, Food and Agriculture Departments in Punjab. He remained the secretary of home, law, prosecution of the local government department in Balochistan.
He remained the deputy commissioner of Sheikhupura district and commissioner of Zhob division.
Mr Gilani’s longest stint of four years was at the energy department in Punjab where he led the initiative to add about 10,000 megawatts to the national grid to rid the country of electricity outages.
Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023