ISLAMABAD - Appointment of the Defence Division secretary is the sole prerogative of the Chief Executive and as per practice it has always been made in consultation with the incumbent Chief of the Army Staff.Official sources said on Monday there was no constitutional obligation that defence secretary must be from the armed forces; therefore, this appointment is always made considering the security milieu at a given time."There is no mandatory constitutional requirement that defence secretary has to have defence (military) background", the sources said, adding that majority of those who served as defence secretaries in the country have been civilian.However, during military rule in the country, most of the Chief Martial Administrators having the powers of the Chief Executive had often opted for a person with a military background. However, a list of defence secretaries, who served the country since 1947 to-date, suggests that civilians had also served as defence secretaries even during the military regimes.The list is as follows: Maj-Gen Iskander Mirza (Oct 1947 to May 1954), Akhter Husain (June 1954 to Aug 1957), Muhammad Khurshid (March 1958 to June 1959), S Fida Hussain (July 1958 to Aug 1961), Nazir Ahmed (Aug 1961 to Sept 1965), S Fida Hussain (Sept 1965 to June 1966), S I Haque (June 1966 to Dec 1966), S Ghiasuddin Ahmed (Dec 1966 to Aug 1973), Maj-Gen (r) Fazal Muqeem Khan (Aug 1973 to Oct 1977), Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Secretary General, (Oct 1975 to July 1977), Lt-Gen Ghulam Jilani Khan, Secretary General, (Oct 1977 to April 1980) Maj-Gen (r) M Rahim Khan (Nov 1980 to Dec 1985), Asif Rahim (June 1981 to June 1984), Aftab Ahmad Khan (Feb 1984 to Aug 1985), Ijlal Haider Zaidi (Aug 1985 to Nov 1989), Salim Abbas Jilani (Nov 1989 to Nov 1996), Hasan Raza Pasha (Nov 1996 to May 1997), Lt-Gen (r) Iftikhar Ali Khan (May 1997 to Oct 1999), Lt-Gen (r) Naseem Rana (Oct 1999 to Mar 2001), Lt-Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan (Mar 2001 to May 2005), Lt-Gen (r) Tariq Waseem Ghazi (May 2005 to April 2007), Kamran Rasool (April 2007 to Nov 2008), Lt-Gen (r) Syed Athar Ali (Nov 2008 to Nov 2011), Lt-Gen (r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi (Nov 2011 to Jan 2012), Nargis Sethi (Jan 2012 to July 2012) and Lt-Gen (r) Asif Yaseen Malik (July 2012 to date).

Trending Discussions

Musharraf had no authority to issue PCO: SC

Nawaz's call for peace talks welcomed by TTP

NAB to quiz Gilani, Raja

Chinese PM assures Nawaz of transferring civil nuclear ...