PESHAWAR – President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday appointed Barrister Syed Masood Kausar as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governor on the advice of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Barrister Kausar is likely to assume the office after taking oath on Thursday (tomorrow).
He will replace Owais Ahmad Ghani, who assumed the office in May 2007. Masood is amongst a few civilians to be posted against the highly sensitive office in the country as mostly former military generals remained governor of this province.
The office of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor is considered very sensitive, being responsible for the affairs of the tribal belt. Belonging to Kohat, Barrister Kausar is counted a diehard PPP activist. He served as the provincial assembly speaker in 1988-90 and as the deputy opposition leader in 1990-1993. He remained a minister in the cabinet of the late chief minister Mir Afzal Khan for a couple of weeks.
In 1994, he was elected to the Senate. He remained as PPP provincial (then NWFP) president for around one year in 1997-98. He also remained a member of PPP Central Executive Committee. He is counted amongst the experienced and talented lawyers of Peshawar and remained Peshawar High Court Bar Association president and a member of Pakistan Bar Council.
Barrister Kausar is the elder brother of a known progressive poet, the late Syed Ahmad Shah, commonly known as Ahmad Faraz. The president felicitated Barrister Kausar who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr and hoped he would provide moral and political support in the war against militancy, and also work for the welfare and uplift of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas.
President Zardari advised Barrister Kausar to give special attention to the development of the tribal areas, particularly in the implementation of the reforms announced on August 14, 2009, to bring the people of FATA into the mainstream of the national life and remove their sense of deprivation.
Barrister Kausar thanked the president for the confidence reposed in him and assured him of doing his best to come up to the expectations of the people of the province.
