AJK chief secretary transferred: By Tariq Naqash in The Dawn, May 10

MUZAFFARABAD, May 9: The federal government transferred on Sunday the chief secretary of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in a move to appease some leaders of the AJK chapter of People’s Party (PPAJK) who considered him an obstacle to their efforts to reinstate AJK Supreme Court’s non-functional chief justice.

Mr Sultan has been replaced by Muhammad Shahzad Arbab, one of the five BPS-21 additional secretaries in the President’s Secretariat, Islamabad.

Mr Arbab called on Prime Minster Raja Farooq Haider in Kashmir House, Islamabad, on Sunday evening and is likely to take up his new assignment on Monday.

Some top PPAJK leaders, associated closely with President Asif Ali Zardari, had been trying for some weeks to get Mr Sultan ousted from AJK. These efforts were reportedly backed by Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo who has not hidden his leaning for an “out of box” solution to the AJK’s judicial issue.

They (PPAJK leaders) had been constantly convincing their leadership in Islamabad that “despite being a representative of the federal government the chief secretary was not supporting them in AJK and should, therefore, be transferred,” informed sources told Dawn.

Since the chief secretary was abiding by the AJK government he had also become a “persona non grata” in the “R” Block which houses the Kashmir Affairs’ Ministry. Last month, PPAJK president Chaudhry Abdul Majeed used obnoxious language against Mr Sultan in the presence of a PPP MNA and reportedly vowed to get the chief secretary ousted from the AJK.

Simultaneously, a smear campaign was also launched against Mr Sultan by a section of press to which he had served legal notices.

Interestingly, an intelligence agency, whose role in the ‘out of turn’ elevation of Justice Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry as the CJ is an open secret, was also unhappy with Mr Sultan and was reportedly gathering information to prepare grounds for his exit from here, the sources added.

The chief secretary is the most important tool in the administrative machinery of AJK and if he is non-cooperative he can frustrate the working of the government. http://news.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/ajk-chief-secretary-transferred-050