The federal secretary (also referred to as the secretary to the Government of Pakistan) is the highest-ranking position in the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

, occupied by the most senior

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in a specific ministry or division. The secretary is the administrative head of that ministry or division and oversees and enforces public policy matters. The authority for the creation of this post solely rests with the

Cabinet of Pakistan Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Fil ...

. The position holder is a BPS-22 grade officer, usually belonging to the Pakistan Administrative Service. State emblem of Pakistan

All promotions and appointments to this rank and post are directly made by the

prime minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan ( ur, , romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Pak ...

. The post of federal secretary is equivalent to that of chief secretary of a provincial government (within their respective provinces) and to the rank of General in the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

, Air Marshal in the

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

, and Admiral in the Pakistan Navy. Due to the importance of their respective assignments, there are twelve specific federal secretaries which are considered to be the most vital in the Government of Pakistan. These include the establishment secretary (responsible for civil service matters), finance secretary (responsible for the country's treasury), secretary to the prime minister (responsible for Prime Minister's Office), cabinet secretary (responsible for the Cabinet Division),

interior secretary The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natu ...

(responsible for law and order), commerce secretary (responsible for trade),

foreign secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

(responsible for foreign relations), maritime secretary (responsible for ports and shipping), power secretary (responsible for the electricity and power sector), planning and development secretary (responsible for development projects), petroleum secretary (responsible for the petroleum sector), and industry secretary (responsible for industrial development).

Powers and responsibilities

The federal secretary is the administrative head of the ministry or division, and oversees all matters of policy and administration within the ministry or /division. The role of secretary is as follows: * To act as the administrative head of the ministry or division. The responsibility in this regard is complete and undivided. * To act as the chief adviser to the prime minister on all aspects of policy and administrative affairs. * To represent the ministry or division before the Standing Committees of the Parliament.

Perception and image

The federal secretaries are the most senior and experienced officers in the country and are largely considered to be the most powerful individuals in the government. Promotion to the rank of federal secretary is regarded as a very tough task given the high level of scrutiny taken into place when the promotions are done by the High Powered Selection Board (HPSB) which is chaired by the prime minister. As the career service of federal secretaries and other bureaucrats are immune to the transition of political governments, they are seen as the real policy-makers who govern the country and serve as the spinal cord for the establishment.

Federal secretary slots

National Security Division Secretary The National Security Division Secretary is the Federal Secretary to the National Security Council of Pakistan. The position holder is a BPS-22 grade officer, usually belonging to the Pakistan Administrative Service. The current National Securi ...

* Pakistan Secretary of Industries and Production * Pakistan Secretary of Law * Aviation Secretary of Pakistan

Notable federal secretaries

Abdul Hamid S.Qa, T.Pk Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word '' Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and the definite prefix '' al / el'' (, mea ...

* Roedad Khan * Nargis Sethi * Tariq Bajwa * Shehzad Arbab *

Usman Ali Isani Usman Ali Isani is a former senior Pakistani bureaucrat, educationist and a philatelist. He was born in 1934 in his village Bado of Shikarpur District. He is alumnus of Prince of Wales Royal Military College Dheradhoon. Later, after the Indo ...

* Nasir Mahmood Khosa * Rizwan Ahmed * Azam Suleman Khan * Syed Abu Ahmad Akif * Naveed Kamran Baloch * Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad * Maroof Afzal * Shoaib Mir Memon * Mir Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri * Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera * Muhammad Sualeh Ahmad Faruqi * Sajjad Saleem Hotiana * Raja Muhammad Abbas * Mumtaz Ali Shah * Kamran Rasool * Allah Bakhsh Malik * Arshad Sami Khan * Irfan Ali * Shahjehan Syed Karim * Kamran Lashari * Jawad Rafique Malik * Sikandar Sultan Raja * Qudrat Ullah Shahab * Iqbal Hussain Durrani * Ghulam Ishaq Khan * Tasneem Noorani * Fawad Hasan Fawad * Rabiya Javeri Agha *

Aftab Ghulam Nabi Kazi Aftab Ghulam Nabi Kazi ( ur, آفتاب غلام نبی قاضی; 6 November 1919 – 9 August 2016) , also known as AGN Kazi, was a Pakistani civil servant and a bureaucrat during the Cold War and during the post cold war. Kazi was born in ...

* Sajjad Hasan * Zafar Hasan *

Ghufran Memon Forgiveness, in a psychological sense, is the intentional and voluntary process by which one who may initially feel victimized or wronged, goes through a change in feelings and attitude regarding a given offender, and overcomes the impact of th ...

References

{{reflist Civil service of Pakistan Government of Pakistan