Institutional reforms in AJK: Reorganization of Civil Services structure in AJK afoot:.

MIRPUR [AJK] -- 'Reorganization of civil Services structure in Azad Jammu Kashmir begins - which the AJK government has asserted is yet another important step towards the region's institutional reforms by the incumbent State government.

Unveiling the details, an AJK government handout issued late Friday said that consultations were afoot to appoint a separate secretary for each department to improve the performance of government institutions.

It continued that in Azad Jammu Kashmir, there is one secretary who works for two or more departments and this tradition has been in practice there for a long time the most important departments were handed over to the same secretary.

In order to reverse this practice the incumbent government has decided to hand over important departments to secretaries with their own separate Secretariats.

According to the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the secretaries of 8 major departments including municipalities, electricity, and highways are proposed to be promoted to the positions of Additional Chief Secretary on a seniority basis.

Similarly, the post of the head of the home department, who used to be an additional secretary for seventy years, has been upgraded to a full secretary.

Likewise, separate secretariats are being established for other sectors including minerals...