Rubina Athar is most appropriate person for the post because she had served ministry as joint secretary and knows about upcoming challenges
ISLAMABAD: Leaving other competitors far behind the front runner Customs Officer Rubina Athar has joined the Commerce Ministry as additional secretary to bridge the gap emerged following transfer of Additional Secretary Fazal Abbas Maken.
In August 2014, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had transferred Rubina Athar (Pakistan Customs Service/BS-21) from the Directorate General IPR Enforcement and Research (Customs), Islamabad and posted as the director general of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation, Karachi.
A source told Customs Today that Abbas Maken had been taking care of the ministry affairs pertaining to local and international trade as well as focal person and had also represented the ministry on numerous international platforms and played a key role in the execution and finalisation of terms of references of trade agreements with friendly countries.
“The Commerce Ministry, in the wake of ongoing developments and seriousness of challenges confronted by Pakistan on both the foreign and domestic trade, was looking for some competent and experienced officer for the said post,” the source observed.
He said that the slot of additional secretary was of a technical nature because the holder of the post had to hold lengthy discussions and debates and go through trade treaties along with hectic official work, therefore, the ministry was 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.
“However, having immense experience, Rubina Athar is being considered as the most appropriate one for the said post because she had served the ministry as joint secretary as well as she had a lot of knowledge about the upcoming challenges,” the source said, adding that her customs-related expertise would benefit the country in discussion related to trade tariffs with other countries because her office had been delegated responsibility of taking care of both the foreign and domestic trade.
Similarly, the source said that as she hailed from the Customs Group, therefore she would be able to handle the challenges related to establishment of Land Port Authority (LPA) followed by the land ports at borders with neighbouring countries.
“However, some hurdles and hardships for media persons are being anticipated in regards to her accessibility because previous 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 the Commerce Ministry,” the source concluded.
