The government is considering appointing Economic Affair Division Secretary Tariq Pasha, a 22-grade officer of Inland Revenue Service, as the auditor general of Pakistan (AGP).
Sources told Pakistan Today that earlier Finance Secretary Tariq Bajwa refused to fill the vacant slot of the AGP after his retirement, as he had already prioritised another seat, i.e. federal ombudsman.
Upon Bajwa’s refusal to take the AGP seat, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has set eyes on Tariq Pasha as government high ups think he can be a suitable and trustworthy person in case the current government will not be able to form government in the next term, sources added.
According to the sources, Rana Asad Amin is also lobbying for Tariq Pasha because of his personal interests.
Rana Asad Amin’s wife is working as an additional secretary in the Economic Affair Division and he is thinking that if Pasha gets the slot of the AGP then he can easily manage to give the charge of the secretary of the EAD to his wife, sources said.
One officer told this that Cabinet Secretary Nadeem Hassan Asif is also in the queue for the post of the AGP but that can only happen if Pasha also refuses the offer.
It is pertinent to mention here that since the inception of the seat of the AGP, no officer from other than Audit and Accounts group had been appointed as an AGP.
Currently, Perveen Agha, Shagufta Khanum and Imran Iqbal are the senior officers from Audit and Accounts group.
Perveen Ahga is currently working as Railways secretary and her retirement is due in December 2018, whereas Shagufta Khanum has the charge of controller general accounts (CGA).
On the other hand, Acting AGP Imran Iqbal’s retirement is due in October 2017.
Officers told this scribe that if the government appointed officer from other group than the Audit and Accounts group, they will protest it; the group already has an example of Inland Revenue Service (IRS), when the government had given the charge of Revenue Division to incumbent Secretary Finance Tariq Bajwa, the officer of above mentioned cadre went on strike that eventually force the Tariq Bajwa to step down.
It may also be added that government is running the affairs of AGP without a permanent AG since April 2017; after the retirement of Rana Asad Amin, the government had given the provisional charge to Haq Nawaz, who retired on April 28.
Upon his retirement, the government once again gave the acting charge to Imran Iqbal till further orders.
