PESH AWAR: A retiring senior information department official has claimed the long delay in the processing of his promotion case has denied him the chance to become the first director general (information) in the province.

As part of the restructuring of the information department in August last year, the government had upgraded the post of the director information (BPS-19) to the director general`s (BPS-20).

Retiring today (Tuesday), information director Shualbuddin recently wrote a letter to the chief secretary to intervene for his relief accusing the information secretary of depriving him of the due right of promotion due to `personal grudges`. The Dec 19, 2016, letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn, says recently, the KP government had created the post of BPS-20 DG (information) vide Aug 17, 2016, notification.

It added that being a senior officer, near to the retirement and keeping his dedicated service for the information, he (Shuaibuddin) deserved to be appointed as the first DG (information) and that would also have enhanced his pension benefits to some extent.

The letter said the case of service rules was duly processed and that his case was sent to the establishment department for processing but the same was returned with observation that it might be processed along with other such cases of the department. It said specifically, no observations were raised upon his (Shualbuddin) case.

The letter said the file of Shuaibuddin`s promotion had been lying on the table of the information secretary since Dec 1 and that the latter would deprive the undersigned of his due right of promotion apparently on the account of personal grudges. An insider claimed the information secretary processed the case on Monday after the intervention of the chief minister.

Information secretary Tahir Hassan was not available for comments.-Bureau Report