A rare farewell for a rare bureaucrat

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar and his cabinet, in its meeting on Monday, bid a rare farewell to a rare breed in civilian bureaucracy, Dr Tauqeer Shah, PM’s Principal Secretary, who retired on Tuesday after an accomplished career of over three decades.

According to a cabinet member, PM Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar paid glowing tribute to his outgoing Principal Secretary and the entire federal cabinet endorsed premier’s views. The source quoted the PM as saying, “Dr Tauqir is one of the most honest, hardworking and balanced officers I have ever come across. He has gilt-edged integrity and assisted me and the federal government in most professional and efficient manner.”

All the ministers unanimously endorsed prime minister’s views and bid farewell to the outgoing senior civil servant.

Dr Tauqir joined DMG/PAS in 1991. Only after six years of his field experience as Assistant and Deputy Commissioner, Dr Tauqir’s reputation of a promising young officer landed him in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in 1997 as Deputy Secretary to the-then CM Shehbaz Sharif, who is considered as a hard taskmaster.

Dr Tauqir also served as Principal Secretary to CM Punjab, and later when Shehbaz became the PM, he was appointed as Principal Secretary to the PM. Shehbaz Sharif has also been publicly acknowledging Dr Tauqir’s professionalism and integrity.

For being close aide of Shehbaz Sharif, Dr Tauqir’s work and his notings on the official files have been thoroughly scrutinised during General Musharraf’s tenure and also during Javed Iqbal’s term as NAB chairman. But nothing was found against the officer, who is also an exception in the bureaucracy for having declined to get a government plot allotted to senior bureaucrats.

Dr Tauqir Shah also served in different UN agencies during his public service stint. He had been senior adviser in UNDP, ILO and International Trade Centre, Geneva. Key highlight of Dr Tauqir’s civil service career was his appointment as Pakistan’s ambassador at WTO Geneva from 2015-2018.

He got elected chair of key WTO body on Trade and Environment, and also on the board of advisory centre for WTO law. Upon his transfer, the then Director General WTO acknowledged his services and wrote to government of Pakistan, “Ambassador Shah is one of the most well-regarded Ambassadors in Geneva not only because of his strong role in representing Pakistan’s interests at the WTO, but also because of the high esteem that he is held in by me and his ambassadorial colleagues”.

The DG also acknowledged, “Let me share the high regard in which I hold Ambassador Shah and the key role he has been playing in Geneva across a number of important policy briefs. This includes his work as the Negotiating Group Chair on Trade and Environment, but perhaps even more so on some other key issues before us such as electronic commerce where Ambassador Shah has been instrumental in the work of the Friends of Electronic Commerce for Development. Of course, there are a range of other important issues where he has been playing a similar role including agriculture and development. Ambassador Shah is one of most well-regarded ambassadors in Geneva”.

In 2017 under Dr Tauqir’s watch, the supreme dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled in favour of Pakistan, rejecting the appeal of the European Union (EU) in the famous Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) countervailing duty case. This was regarded a big diplomatic success of Pakistan at the multilateral forum in Geneva by the trade experts.

Pinnacle of Dr Tauqir’s carrier at WTO was when he was appointed as Judge on a three-member trade dispute panel to adjudicate trade dispute between Russia and US at WTO. Dr Tauqir still serves on the forum -- he is first officer from Pakistan Administrative Service to get this honour while still in service. This was regarded as global acknowledgement of his professionalism and expertise.

Dr Tauqir also had an accomplished academic career as well. He is a fellow of LEAD International, a global sustainable development think tank; has served on the Board of Governors of LEAD Pakistan; is Watson Environment Fellow from global programme of UN Environment Programme and Brown University Rhode Island, US; holds Sustainability Challenge Foundation Fellowship in Netherlands specialising in negotiation skills for sustainable development; holds Fleishman Civil Society Fellowship from Duke University, North Carolina, focusing on role of civil society in Global Governance; and was also unanimously elected to chair the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment in 2016. He did his MSc from University of Manchester as Chevening Scholar in 1998.

For working as key staff member of Shehbaz Sharif during latter’s government, Dr Tauqir fell on the wrong side of Prime Minister Imran Khan who made him an OSD throughout his tenure. Dr Tauqir was overlooked by Imran Khan for promotion to Grade-22 despite his outstanding service record. He had topped all civil service training courses throughout his career.

A scion of landed family from Sangjani, Islamabad, who owns land in many districts of KPK and Punjab, Dr Tauqir was known in civil service for his humility and positive helpful problem-solving approach. Principal secretaries generally invite ire of politicians and ministers, but Dr Tauqir’s handling even during 13-party PDM coalition was trouble-free. His retention by caretaker PM as principal secretary was regarded by many as a testimony to his professionalism.

Now, Dr Tauqir is all set to start his new diplomatic career as Executive Director to World Bank where he will represent Pakistan and some other countries, including Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia, Libya, Iran and Ghana.