Secy Higher Edu post still vacant

LAHORE - After the removal of Secretary Higher Education Department Azhar Hassan Shamim, the Punjab govt is facing problems in finding his substitute. A grade-18 officer is stated to be now having an eye on the grade-20 post.
The said office is being run on ad-hoc basis since the transfer of the former Secretary, as no suitable person is available to fill the vacant post. Two senior officers posted to this post were transferred within a short span of around 15 days, and now a third one, a grade-18 officer has recently been appointed to grade-20 post.
The sources in the Punjab Civil Secretariat revealed that file work in the office has almost been paralysed and the pendency rate has risen upto alarming level.
An insider seeking anonymity said that Secretary Azhar Hassan had stopped file work during the last days of his tenure, and then Umar Rasool who was already holding office of I&C (Implementation & Coordination) and an officer of grade-19 was required to look after the said office.
He worked hardly for more than a week that he was transferred and posted as Director General LDA (Lahore Development Authority). Then Ahad Khan Cheema an officer of grade-18 who was working as Additional Secretary Welfare was given additional charge of the said post. It is learnt that he is already looking after the work load of more than two offices.
Within the Department, another Additional Secretary Establishment, Humayun Maqbool Bhatti, also of Grade-18 and from Customs group was working against the Grade-19 post.
The sources claimed that now-a-days, in the Education Department, no file work was being done and most of the staff was engaged in maintaining the office record which is lying in MAO college building. It is worth mentioning here that Chief Secretary Punjab plans to inspect the record of the Education Department on June 25, this month.
People coming from far-flung areas return disappointed as on the one side, the office working was at halt in the Education Department and on the other it is difficult for a common man to enter the place in the context of the security reasons and tight security at the main gate of Punjab Civil Secretariat, said an officer on the condition of not to be named.