ISLAMABAD - Starting his career as assistant commissioner in Islamabad decades ago, veteran bureaucrat Shahid Ashraf Tarar after passing a long distance has finally been sworn in as caretaker federal minister on Friday in the same city.
President Dr Arif Alvi administered an oath from the eighteen- member caretaker cabinet — a setup supposed to conduct next general elections in ninety days as per the constitution – however, uncertainty prevails in this regard.
A retired federal secretary Shahid Ashraf Tarar has joined 13th common of the civil service after retiring from Pakistan Army as captain.
He is the son of Muhammad Ashraf Tarar, who was the first cousin of Muhammad Rafiq Tarar — the former president of Pakistan. He belonged to Sahnpal, tehsil Phalia, district Mandi Bahauddin but his family was shifted to Peer Kot, Gakhar Mandi, district Gujranwala.
In his early days in the services he remained posted in Islamabad District Administration, Capital Development Authority, Deputy Commissioner Khushab, DG National Vocational and Training Commission (NAVVTC), Secretary Excise and Taxation in Punjab.
At the time of joining as caretaker minister, he was appointed as Chairman Federal Public Service Commission by the Shahbaz Sharif led government.
Tarar, who qualifies as the right man for the right job is allocated three portfolios of communications, railways and aviation but his core expertise are in road infrastructure as he served a powerful head of the National Highway Authority in the Nawaz Sharif led government after 2013 general elections.
It is on his credit that he had supervised speedy and timely completion of multibillion projects at that time being head of NHA and approximately Rs1400 billion were spent on the construction of national highways and motorways.
Usually, projects completed in bulk or in speed leave loopholes behind however besides a strict scrutiny and repeated accusations in Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf’s tenure, not even a single scandal could be brought into the spotlight.
However, now after becoming a federal minister of the division where once he served as secretary and head of a key subordinate department simultaneously, where his past experience would help him to proceed but at the same time it would be challenging to keep his previous momentum as now this time his role is entirely different.
Being Chairman NHA and later Secretary Communications, Tarar had a full backing of former premier Nawaz Sharif and he was directly reporting to him without any hindrance.
People close to him know that he is straightforward, intelligent, hardworking and task oriented and he has the courage to say no but with an art of keeping balance according to the ground realities.
He is being considered as a good choice amongst circles especially for the multibillion portfolio of the communications, as it was completely neglected by the PTI government while he could play a vital role in actualizing China Pakistan Economic Corridor’s Main Line (ML-1) railway project as he had done several projects under same framework.
