Mohammad Younus Dagha was removed as the finance secretary on Thursday, a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat/Establishment Division said, while a separate notification announced the transfer of Naveed Kamran Baloch, who had now been made the finance secretary.
Baloch has previously served as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary. He joined the Civil Services on October 22, 1985. He was previously a Grade 22 officer with the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), posted as secretary National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination Division. He will retire on March 7, 2021.
Maroof Afzal, who is currently posted as secretary of the Information Technology and Telecommunication Division, will be posted to Baloch’s previous position as the Cabinet Division secretary. Dagha took charge as the finance secretary in March after the post fell vacant following the retirement of Arif Ahmed Khan.
Dagha’s removal from the post comes a day after Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Haroon Sharif, who was appointed eight months ago, tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On Wednesday, reports had emerged that Dagha was also likely to be replaced within days.
A high-level source familiar with these developments told a private news channel that Dagha had developed differences with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh over the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Dagha felt that the adviser had negotiated a bad deal for Pakistan,” the source said. The differences emerged in the last round of meetings with the IMF.
“The team led by former finance minister Asad Umar, of which Dagha was an important part, had softened the IMF programme in significant ways,” the source claimed. Shaikh wanted the programme to be “front loaded”. This is what created differences between them, reaching to a point where Dagha did not participate in the last few rounds with the IMF before the programme was finalised.
Sources also said that Dhaga had not been consulted by the finance adviser during the recent talks with the IMF. He has now been directed to report to the Establishment Division.