- Officials say former officer did not attend meetings called by governor, was not in Mehtab’s good books
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has replaced Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Azam Khan with former Punjab Higher Education secretary Muhammad Aslam Kamboh, who took charge on Tuesday.
KP’s Establishment Department transferred Azam Khan on Monday, asking him to report to the department. Khan headed the FATA secretariat for 6 months since last October after replacing Arbab Mohammad Arif, the current KP Home and Tribal Affair Department secretary.
Officials in the FATA Secretariat and Establishment Department told Pakistan Today that Khan had differences with the KP Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan and was not attending meetings called by the governor.
“The governor could not work with him, so ultimately he had to be transferred,” said a senior official of the Establishment Department on anonymity. “No doubt Khan is a competent officer but he had problems with every elected government in which he has served on different posts,” he maintained.
Khan has also served as political agent of South Waziristan and Kurram Agency, commissioner and deputy commissioner of Peshawar, Home and Tribal Affairs Department secretary, Sarhad Development Authority managing director and as Sports and Tourism secretary.
“Khan had differences with former Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government, the subsequent government of Awami National Party and now the current government,” the official explained, adding that Khan has been replaced on the governor‘s recommendation over a mutual understanding with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led provincial government.
Regarding the new FATA ACS, the officials said he has “no experience of tribal people and their traditions”, however he has been appointed on KP government’s recommendations.
“The provincial government asks the federal government for the services of an officer to the province and then the transfers take place,” said an official of the FATA Secretariat, adding that Muhammad Aslam Kamboh is an outsider to FATA and would not better perform as compared to an official whose background is from FATA or KP.
“The new ACS is a blue-eyed of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and has been transferred with mutual consent of PTI and PML-N,” he said.
When asked about the development, KP Establishment additional secretary said that he was not aware of the posting and the Election Commission of Pakistan has banned the transfers and postings due to the upcoming local government polls, while the Establishment secretary was not available for comments.
