PESHAWAR: Khalid Khan Umerzai, a retried bureaucrat, passed away here on Sunday.

His funeral was later held at his ancestral village Umerzai, Charsadda district, and was also laid to rest there at his family graveyard.

His last rituals were attended by people in large number including serving and former civil servants, inhabitants of the area, friends and family members.

The deceased was brother of former director general of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Zafarullah Khan.

Mr Umerzai was born to a respectable family of Charsadda and had received his education from Edwardes College Peshawar and University of Peshawar. Afterwards, he joined Provincial Civil Service and dedicated his life to civil service till his retirement a few years back.

Expressing profound grief over the demise of Mr Umerzai, the All Pakistan PMS Officers Association has convey its deepest condolences to his family and friends.

In a statement issued here, the APPMSOA’s coordinator Fahad Ikram Qazi said that from magistrate to assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner to commissioner and secretary to the government, late Khalid Umerzai always remained a towering figure among his colleagues.

He said that being a man of principles and follower of the old-school traditions, he would often remain under suspension or an OSD. He added that few would know that he remained an OSD for more than a decade in various phases throughout his career. Also being chased by the martial law driven watchdogs yet always stood by his words.

He recalled that one of the popular incident at the end of his career was after the elections of 2013 when PTI came to power in the province. He said that the new chief minister had called a meeting of the secretaries committee but the same was chaired by Imran Khan, not the chief minister.

He claimed that the deceased had countered the chair as to his legal capacity for chairing the meeting. He added that the obvious happened afterwards and he was made an OSD and then made instructor of staff training institute till his retirement since Imran Khan had passed standing orders to that effect.

Mr Qazi said that Khalid Umerzai had also struggled for the rights of provincial officers and remained president of the KP chapter as well as of All Pakistan PCS officers for years.

“The dedication, aura, and liveliness of Khalid Khan Umerzai will always be missed. Yet, the PMS Officers across Pakistan will carry on his mission of efficient service delivery and administrative federalism,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2024