Change in interior ministry hot spot


ISLAMABAD, June 30: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appointed Khawaja Mohammad Siddique Akbar as interior secretary on Thursday in place of Maj (retd) Qamar Zaman who was transferred to the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions.

Mr Akbar, a district management group officer, was working as secretary of the now devolved Ministry of Minorities’ Affairs.

States and Frontier Regions Secretary Habibullah Khattak has been posted as chairman of the Pakistan Tobacco Board in Peshawar.

According to sources in the establishment division, the change of the interior secretary is an important development at a time when the government is embroiled in several issues like the National Investment Corporation scam, killing of a youth by Rangers in Sindh and the Kharotabad incident. The interior secretary will have a role in all these cases. He will also provide secretarial support to the Abbottabad judicial inquiry commission.

The sources said Mr Zaman did not have a good working relationship with Interior Minister Rehman Malik who had criticised his conduct.

In December 2009, the prime minister suspended Mr Zaman after Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar was barred from boarding a flight to China by FIA officials. The minister was told that his name was on the Exit Control List (ECL) following the Supreme Court’s verdict against the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

Later, an inquiry proved that Mr Zaman had no role in the action and his suspension was revoked.