PESHAWAR: A junior officer superseded a senior officer after the Khyber Pal(htunkhwa Assembly`s promotion and recruitment committee promoted and appointed him as secretary of the assembly on Tuesday.

A notification was issued here of the appointment of Nasrullah Khan (BPS-20 personal) as the secretary of the provincial assembly and promotion of deputy secretary Inamullah Khan (BPS-19 personal) as additional secretary (BPS-19) and assistant secretary Mohammad Younas (BPS-18 personal)as deputy secretary.

The notification said in exercise of the powers conferred on him by Rule 10 read with Rule 6 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly Secretariat (Recruitment) Rules, 1974, Mr speaker had promoted Nasrullah and two other officers to the next grade.

Speaker Asad Qaisar is the chairman of the three-member committee, while spe-cial assistant to the chief minister on housing Dr Amjad Ali and newly-appointed secretary are members of the promotion and recruitment committee, which met last Friday.

Incumbent additional secretary Kifayatullah Afridi (BPS-20 regular) was the most senior officer in the assembly secretariat. Nasrullah Khan was presently serving as special secretary and his promotion and two officers including ex-secretary have challenged his appointment in the Peshawar High Court.

Unlike the former secretary, the speal(er had delegated all powers, including administrative, financial and accounts, to Mr Nasrullah.

After being deprived of the administrative and financial powers, former secretary Amanullah Khan examined the matters related to legislation and meetings of the public accounts committee only. He had challenged the move of the speaker in the Peshawar High Court.

Sources insisted Nasrullah was in the good books of Speaker Asad Qaisar and had been getting out-of-the-way promotions since 2015.

They added that the speaker had earlier promoted Nasrullah as the special secretary in BPS-20 (personal) and gave him additional powers in Sept 2015.

The sources said according to the assem-bly secretariat`s recruitment rules, an official can be promoted by awarding personal grade after serving for specific time.

They said that officials in BPS-19 and below could be awarded personal grade after serving six years in the same grade, while BPS-20 and above grades could be awarded next grade as personal after serving for eight years.

However, sources said Nasrullah had worl(ed for two years only in BPS-20 before being given personal grade.

They insisted that it was astonishing to see how an official was promoted to the next grade though he had yet to be regularised in the previous one.

The sources said the authorities at the helm of affairs could create special post for a period of six months with the approval of the assembly`s finance committee. However, Nasrullah had worked as the special secretary for two years, who was initially appointed for six months.

When approached, special assistant to the chief minister Dr Amjad justified the appointment of Nasrullah as the secretary saying the committee found him (Nasrullah) to be more competent and active than Mr Afridi.

`Nasrullah is more competent to run the assembly and therefore, he has been appointed to the post with all powers,` he said.