The caretaker administration in the Centre was denotified on Saturday soon after Prime Minister Imran Khan took the oath of his office.
In two back-to-back notifications, the Cabinet Secretariat relieved caretaker PM Nasirul Mulk and his cabinet of their constitutional duties. The outgoing caretaker cabinet comprised Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Syed Ali Zafar, Muhammad Azam Khan, Mian Misbah-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Yusuf Shaikh, retired Lt Gen Naeem Khalid Lodhi, Roshan Khursheed Bharucha and Shamshad Akhtar.
Later in the day, through a third notification, Mohammad Azam, a grade 21 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, was appointed as the secretary to the PM ‘with immediate effect and until further orders’.
Azam, who belongs to Mardan district, had joined the civil services in 1989. He has served as the additional secretary of the States and Frontier Regions Division in the past, and has worked closely with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2018.
