Islamabad: Majority of the lucrative posts in Pakistan’s trade missions abroad have been occupied by influential officers of the District Management Group while the group for which these posts were created has been neglected.

The Trade and Commerce group of services has been neglected in purely trade and commerce posts in Pakistan trade missions abroad, which has caused resentment among officers in the Commerce Ministry.

According to a notification of the Ministry of Commerce bearing number 3(9)/92-Admin.III dated 16 January 2008, at least 50 percent of the posts have been allocated for the Trade and Commerce group.

But the list available with The News states that out of the 12 lucrative posts of Trade Ministers and Counsel Generals, there are only two persons of Commerce and Trade group while six are from the District Management Group. Sources told this correspondent that at least, 30 (50%) officers of Trade and Commerce group should be posted in trade missions abroad out of the total 60 posts but there were only 19 officers posted and the rest of the posts were occupied by other groups having no link to the job specified.

The list states that Trade Ministers Azmat Ali Ranjha (Washington), Teepu Mahabat Khan (Geneva), Qasim M. Niaz (Brussels), and Muhammad Misbah Tunio (Kandahar) are from the District Management Group while Mohammad Ilyas Ghauri (Moscow) is the only officer of Commerce and Trade group. The other two Ministers include Naeem Anwar ex-cadre (New Delhi) of ex-cadre group and Hijab Gul is designated at Jeddah for the OIC.

While the Consul Generals include Ahmad Balal (Hong Kong) and Zafar Hassan (Shanghai) of DMG, Azam Mohammed (Sydney) and Dr Yousaf Junaid (Istanbul) are of C&T and Mrs. Riffat A. Hasan (Montreal) is from the Customs & Excise group.

The document states that Commercial Counsellors posted abroad include Syed Zafar Ali Shah (Bangkok), Eazaz Aslam Dar (Los Angeles), Aamir Ahmed (Rome), Babar Hayat Tarar (Madrid), Javed Akbar (Stockholm), Tanver Ahmad Quershi (Geneva), Fuad Hashim Rabbani (Seoul), Mian Asad Hayaud Din (Chicago), Awais Manzur Sumra (Athens), Hassan M Yousafzai (Frankfurt), Iftikhar Ali Shallwani (Buenos Aires) and Wajihullah Kundi (Kuala Lampur) are of DMG while Sarfraz Ahmad (Jeddah), Bilal Khan Pasha (Abu Dhabi), Faiz Rasul (Kabul), Syed Tajamul Hussain, (Sao Paulo), Shaukat Ali Khan (Almaty) and Muhammad Irfan Tarar (Casablanca) are of Commerce and Trade group.

Dr. Naeem Khan (Beijing), Muhammad Aamer (New York), Mrs. Suriya Ahmad Butt, (Paris), Dr Muhammad Saeed Khan Jadoon (Tehran), Abdul Majid Yousfani (Mexico city), Zulfiqar Younas (Dhaka) and Saifuddin Junejo (Chengdu) are of Customs and Excise group who are also working as Commercial Counsellors while Dr. Amjad Iqbal (Nairobi), Viqar Mahmood Khilji (Berlin) and Mansoor Ahmad Bajwa Dubai are of Income Tax group. Dr. M. Iqbal Thaheem, (Osaka), Ms Saira Najeeb Ahmad London, Rahman Hamid Tokyo and Ms. Aisha Humera Geneva are also commercial Counsellors from other groups.

While in the category of Commercial Secretary in trade missions abroad Ahmad Mukhtar (Geneva), Muhammad Ashraf (The Hague), Shahzad Ahmad Khan (designate) Al-Khubar, Muhammad Hamid Ali (Manchester), Dr Zia Ahmad (Houston), Dr. Muhammad Adnan Kuwait city, Aisha Makhdoom (Warsaw), Muhammad Waqas Azeem Tripoli, are from Commerce and Trade group while Moin-ud-Din Ahmad Wani Johannesburg and Ziaullah Shams Riyadh are from Customs and Excise group. Zaid Bin Maqsood (Vancouver) and Naseer Ahmad Kashani (Cairo) are from DMG; Muhammad Akhtar (Baku) is from OMG and Majid Quershi (Jakarta) is from Income Tax group. The federal minister for Commerce and the federal secretary commerce were not available for comments because they were abroad.