ISLAMABAD: In a massive shakeup over a month before the general elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday approved the transfers and postings of hundreds of officers in provincial bureaucracy, district administration and police hierarchy of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

In Sindh, 14 secretaries, two additional inspectors general, six commissioners, 33 deputy commissioners, 14 deputyinspectors general and various senior superintendents of police have been transferred.

Haroon Ahmed Khan has beenposted as home secretary, Dr Noor Alam as finance secretary, Fazalullah Pechuho as livestock secretary, Abdul Wahab Soomro as land utilisation member of the Sindh Board of Revenue, Rafiq Buriro as mines and minerals secretary, Umar Chachar as health secretary, Iqbal Hussain Durrani as senior member of the board of revenue, Iqbal Nafees Khan as chairman of the inquiries and anti-corruption establishment, Khalid Haider Shah as local government and town planning secretary, Alia Shahid as school education secretary with additional charge of universities and boards secretary, Abdul Rahim Shaikh as works secretary, Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh as food secretary, Kazi Shahid Pervaiz as information secretary and Aijaz Ahmed Mahesar as excise and taxation secretary.

The ECP also approved the transfer and posting of Sualeh Faruqui as Karachi`s new commissioner, Zulfiqar Ali Shah as Mirpurkhas commissioner,Naveed Ahmed Shaikh as Larkana commissioner, Manzoor Ali Shaikh as Sukkur commissioner, Ahsan Ali Mangi as Hyderabad commissioner and Akram Ali Khowaja as Shaheed Benazirabad commissioner.

Balochistan In Balochistan, the ECP accorded approval to transfer and post threesecretaries, six commissioners, 33 deputy commissioners and various police of ficers.

Haider Ali Shikoh who was earlier serving as secretary for colleges has been made home secretary. Former PSO to the chief minister Babar Khan has been made principal secretary to the CM, and home secretary Ghulam Ali Baloch has been transferred asmember of the chief minister`s inspection team.

Besides, Hashim Ghilaal has been posted as Quetta commissioner, Usman Ali Khan as Naseerabad commissioner, Mohammad Ayaz as Sibi commissioner, Saeed Jamali as Kalat commissioner, Bashir Bazai as commissioner Ziarat and Javed Shahwani as Makran commissioner.

Punjab The ECP approved transfers and postings of 25 provincial secretaries, nine commissioners and 64 police officers in Punjab. Also, 18 police of ficers were surrendered by the Punjab police to the federal government and 28 officers were repatriated to the federal government.

Besides, 35 deputy commissioners, managing directors, director generals, AIGs, SSPs, SPs, additional SPs have also been transferred.

In top bureaucracy of Punjab, retired Captain Nasim Nawaz wastransferred as home secretary, Dr Ismat Tahira as management and professional development secretary, Bushra Aman as Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority chairperson, Ambreen Raza as school education secretary, Khagan Babar as member of the board of revenue, Momin Agha as mines and minerals secretary, Nadeem Mahbub as Zakat and Ushr secretary, and retired Capt Mohammad Mahmood as livestock and dairy development secretary.

Retired captain Asadullah Khan has been made forestry, wildlife and fisheries secretary, Mohammad Hassan Iqbal housing, urban development and public health engineering secretary and Mohammad Haroon-ur-Rafique transport secretary. Similarly, retired captain Saqib Zaf ar has been posted as specialised health care and medical education secretary, Ahmad Raza Sarwar as services and general administration department secretary, Ali Bahadur Qazi as primary and secondary healthcare secretary, Khalid Saleem as higher education secretary, Bilal Ahmed Butt as information secretary, Dr Wasif Khurshid as agriculture secretary, Babar Shafi as excise and taxation secretary, Salman Ijaz as literacy secretary, Khalid Mahmood Ramay as cooperatives department secretary, Mohammad Shehryar Sultan as communications and works secretary, Ahmed Ali Kamboh as a member of the Board of Revenue, Syed Javed Iqbal Bokhari as industries secretary, Zahid Saleem Gondal as director general of archaeology department and Kiran Khurshid as cooperatives department registrar.

The nine new commissioners in Punjab are Mohammad Mujtaba Paracha who has been posted as Lahore commissioner, Nadeem Irshad Kiyani as Gujranwala commissioner, Saif Anjum as Rawalpindi commissioner, Asadullah Faiz as Multan commissioner, Dr Farah Masood as Sahiwal commissioner, Nayar Iqbal asBahawalpur commissioner, Asif Iqbal as Faisalabad commissioner, Rana Gulzar Ahmed as D.G. Khan commissioner and retired captain Mohammad Zafar Iqbal as Sargodha commissioner.

The federal government officers currently posted in Punjab bureaucracy who will be repatriated include planning and development department chairman Jahanzeb Khan, additional chief secretary Mushtaq Ahmad, additional chief secretary Omer Rasul, senior member of the Board of Revenue Mohammad Aslam, excise secretary Dr Ahmad Bilal, services secretary Farhan Aziz Khawaja, mines secretary Dr Arshad Mahmood, schools education secretary Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik, chief minister`s inspection team chairman Abdul Jabbar Shaheen, Lahore commissioner Abdullah Sumbal, OSD Ahmed Javed Qazi, higher education secretary BarristerNabeelAwan,specializedhealthcare and medical education secretary Najam Ahmad Shah and primary and secondary healthcare secretary Ali Jan Khan.

Intikhab Hanif frorn Lahore also contributed to this report