ISLAMABAD: In the wake of ongoing developments and seriousness of challenges confronted by Pakistan on both the foreign and domestic trade, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) is looking for some competent and experienced officer to bridge the vacuum emerged following transfer of Additional Secretary Fazal Abbas Maken.
Abbas has been taking care of Ministry’s affairs pertaining to local and international trade as well as executed responsibilities as focal person and now transferred to the . He had also represented the MoC on numerous international platforms and played key role in the execution and finalization of terms of references of trade agreements with friendly countries.
“Presently, MoC is carrying forward a process of interactions and interviews of desirous officers to be appointed on the said post,” a well placed source at MoC told this scribe here on Tuesday. “Since the, the slot of the said Additional Secretary is of a technical nature because the holder of this post has to hold lengthy discussions and debates and go through trade treaties along with hectic official work, therefore, MoC is looking for some hardworking self motivated officer to carry forward the agenda of increasing exports as well as searching for new markets in the world for Pakistani products,” the source observed.
The source said that among others, a Customs Officer Ms Rubina Athar is one of the leading contenders because she had also served at MoC as joint secretary, however, some other additional secretaries were also in the run for the post. In August 2014, FBR had transferred MS Rubina Athar (Pakistan Customs Service/ BS-21) from Director General Directorate General IPR Enforcement & Research (Customs), Islamabad and posted as Director General Directorate General of Customs Valuation, Karachi.
The source said that being focal person Abbas had been quite friendly with media persons and was easy accessible for media for comments and guidance on numerous ongoing issues related to MoC, therefore, some hurdles and hardships were quite imminent with the posting of any new person at this post. Moreover, the source said that MoC was carrying on numerous exercises namely assessment regarding implementation of previous trade policy as well as preparing guidelines for next trade policy. Similarly, MoC was striving for opening up new trade markets and partners across the globe, signing of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), getting Land Port Authority (LPA) enacted and several others. Therefore, it would not be an easy job for any newly appointed officers to handle all these issues at the same time.
