Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Secretariat has rejected a summary seeking appointment of director general to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of the Ministry of Climate Change and handed over the matter to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for selection of a suitable person for the post.

The high-ups at the Ministry of Climate Change had picked Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta for this post because he was allegedly in their good books and ignored more suitable people. On rejection of the summary from Prime Minister’s Secretariat, the ministry sent another summary to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat seeking additional charge of the EPA director general’s office for Joint Secretary Aftab Ahmed Manika. The Prime Minister’s Secretariat again rejected the summary.

It is pertinent to mention here that the EPA was running without its head since July 2015. EPA officer Irfan Tariq is looking the affairs of the agency on a current charge basis, but he has no knowledge of his assignment.

A BPS-19 officer at the EPA, Zia-ud-Din Khattak, who claims to be the senior most officer in the department, told Daily Times that the EPA director general was a by-promotion post and an outsider could not be appointed to this post. He said it was his right to work on this post, but the government was doing injustice to him. “I was victimised in the past; I was promoted to BPS-19 from BPS-18 after 22 years. And now I am not given the charge of the EPA director general. This is unfair,” Khattak said.