The rise and rise of a clerk

Published March 7, 2008

LAHORE, March 6: Special Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti has been appointed Punjab Assembly secretary in place of Saeed Ahmed who retires on Friday (today).

A notification to the effect has been issued.

According to the notification, the most senior officer in the assembly secretariat, Additional Secretary (legislation) Malik Maqsood Ahmed, has been promoted to grade-20 and posted as special secretary.

The outgoing secretary has served at the post for around four years.

He joined the Assembly Secretariat as junior clerk in grade-7 in 1967.

His successor, Mr Bhatti, was also a grade-7 clerk in the Agriculture Department when then Punjab Assembly speaker Pervaiz Elahi inducted him into the Assembly Secretariat in grade-11 in 1997.

Thanks to the patronage of the Chaudhry who became the Punjab chief minister in 2002, he attained grade-20 in less than a decade, an unprecedented rise seen by any bureaucrat, and was appointed special secretary in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, a post specially created to accommodate him.

Mr Bhatti has been promoted to grade-21 and posted as the assembly secretary.

The notification also says that the personal staff officer to the speaker, Ali Imran Rizvi, has been promoted as additional secretary. Amer Habib, the son of former assembly secretary Habibullah, known for being kidnapped in the Manzoor Wattoo era in an assembly dissolution case, has also been promoted as deputy secretary.

Opinion

Editorial

Anything goes
Updated 13 Jan, 2025

Anything goes

With social media companies abandoning moderation efforts, dark days of freewheeling internet have seemingly returned.
Odious trade
13 Jan, 2025

Odious trade

WHEN home feels like a sinking ship, people are forced to make ill-fated journeys for a better life. Last month,...
Treasure of the Indus
13 Jan, 2025

Treasure of the Indus

THE Indus dolphin, or bulhan as it is known locally, is a remarkable species found only in the Indus River. Unlike...
Increased inflows
Updated 12 Jan, 2025

Increased inflows

Govt must devise a strategy to increase industrial and agricultural productivity to boost exports and reduce reliance on uncertain remittances.
Gwadar’s potential
12 Jan, 2025

Gwadar’s potential

THE Gwadar deep-sea port, completed in 2007, was supposed to be a shining success for the other newly built ports in...
Broken metropolis
12 Jan, 2025

Broken metropolis

KARACHI, Pakistan’s economic juggernaut, is the largest contributor to the nation’s tax revenue. The Federal...