ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday reshuffled top bureaucrats in key ministries and divisions.

According to a senior official of the Establishment Division, water and power secretary Mohammad Younis Dagha has been transferred to the commerce ministry as its secretary. He has been replaced by planning and development division secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar.

Aviation division secretary Irfan Ilahi has been given the portfolio of planning and development division secretary. Azad Kashmir chief secretary Mohammad Jalal Sultan has been appointed additional secretary (in charge) of the aviation division.

According to the official, the services of outgoing secretary of commerce Azmat Ranjha have been placed at the disposal of the Establishment Division and he may be posted to any ministry in the coming days.

While the official insisted that these postings and transfers were a routine exercise, sources privy to the development claimed that it was not as simple as it looked like. According to them, the PML-N government was not satisfied with the performance of Mr Dagha and in order to dispel the impression that he was being singled out, it had to make changes in other ministries and divisions as well.

The sources said the PML-N government, which came to power with the slogan of ending power loadshedding in months, faced embarrassment as hours-long loadshedding resumed even in the month of March while the circular debt reached over Rs480 billion.

They said the petroleum ministry had already informed the prime minister that power sector receivables had exceeded Rs250bn and despite the availability of the largest-ever stock of furnace oil, it was not being supplied to power plants, though the duration of loadshedding was increasing.

As a result, the sources added, local refineries had to reduce capacity utilisation due to non-availability of storage for furnace oil, which might lead to shortage of petrol and diesel in the coming months. Hence, it was difficult for the government to fulfil its commitment to ending loadshedding before the 2018 general elections with the existing set-up, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2017