Shehbaz to retain his bureaucratic team

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will retain his bureaucratic team which previously served with him when he was Chief Minister Punjab, it is learnt. Dr. Tauqeer Hussain Shah was appointed Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and notified on Monday night.

Fawad Hassan Fawad, former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, though retired now, is also expected to join Shehbaz Sharif’s team on the insistence of newly elected PM with whom Fawad previously served in Punjab. Both officers are of District Management Group, now called Pakistan Administrative Service.

Other than Shehbaz Sharif, an official said, the former PM Nawaz Sharif also recommended Dr Tauqeer’s name for the new role. Tauqeer and Fawad were the target of a witch-hunt starting from 2017 onward against the Sharif family and those who served with them. Dr Tauqeer was first removed from the post of principal secretary to chief minister after he was implicated in Model Town clashes in which 14 people associated with Pakistan Awami Tehreek were killed by Punjab Police.

Later, he was posted as Pakistan’s ambassador to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. Incidentally, Dr Asad Majeed, who is now at the centre of controversy on alleged US threat of regime change, was also shortlisted for the position but Tauqeer made it. He was recalled by former chief justice Saqib Nisar who barred him from going back on the grounds that since he was named in the Model Town case he could not travel abroad.

Tauqeer returned to headlines again in 2020 when Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed him as federal health secretary but withdrew his decision amid criticism. This was despite the fact that his name was finalised through a proper selection process presided by Imran’s aide on bureaucracy, Shahzad Arbab. Former federal minister Shafqat Mehmood and Dr Ishrat Hussain was also part of that committee. His integrity has never come under question. However, his stint with Shehbaz Sharif remained an eternal cause of disqualification in the eyes of PMLN’s opponents.

Fawad’s fate was not different. Instead, he remained behind the bars as an accused of the NAB which booked him on the charges of owning assets beyond known means and in connection with Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Project of the Punjab government. However, nothing could be proved against him. He retired from service when he was still kept in jail. Fawad’s integrity as bureaucrat has been beyond any doubt.