KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif chaired the High Powered Selection Board (HPB) meeting on Wednesday, and approved promotions of BS-21 officers into BS-22.
PTI government had been postponing the HPB meeting and didn’t announced promotions of BS-21 officers into BS-22 despite being overdue.
An official said former Prime Minister Imran Khan was not in favor of giving promotions to officers and thus avoiding additional costs and wastage of resources.
Two officers of Pakistan Customs Service (PCS) including Suraiya Ahmed Butt and Dr. Ahmad Mujtaba Memon have been promoted to BS-22. With these promotions, there are now three BS-22 officers in Customs. Director General Customs Intelligence and Investigation Abdul Rasheed Shaikh is also in BS-22.
Inland Revenue Service (IRS) officers promoted to BS-22 include Amir Ali Khan Talpur, Dr. Faiz Ali Khan and current Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Asim Ahmed. Several officers of other services have also been promoted.
An official said the HPB meeting and approval of promotions was surprising as the very existence of the new government hanged in balance and there was no certainty whether this government would continue even for the next 48 hours.
The official said these promotions were actually a stunt to appease the bureaucracy and gratify certain quarters.
Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) officers promoted to BS-22 include Dr. Rashid Mansoor, Dr. Syed Tauqir Hussain Shah, Dr. Ismet Tahira, Mrs. Bushra Aman, Mr. Zulifiqar Haider Khan, Mr. Naveed Allauddin, Mr. Hamidd Yaqoob, Dr. Iftikhar Ali Shalwani, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Farhan Aziz Khawaja, Dr. Fakhar-e-Alam Irfan, Capt(R) Saif Anjum, Dr. Muhammad Usman Chachar, Mr. Aizaz Aslam Dar, Mr. Naveed Ahmad Shaikh, Ms. Sarah Saeed, Mr. Jawad Paul, Mr. Imdad Ullah Bosal.
Promoted Foreign Service Officers include Mazher Javed, Sardar Shuja Alam and Babar Amin.