ISLAMABAD: Roedad Khan – one of the most senior civil servants of the country and a leading figure in Pakistan from the start to the end of the Cold War – breathed his last on Sunday. He was 100.
Khan was laid to rest at the H-11 graveyard in Islamabad, which was attended by people from different walks of life including bureaucrats and politicians.
Mushahid Hussain Syed, who happens to be a close aid of the former bureaucrat, paid rich tribute to Khan in a post on X, declaring him as a “national icon and legend.”
“He lived a full life of service to Pakistan during our tumultuous periods + post-retirement,” said Syed, while crediting him for the numerous books he had written after his retirement and championing human rights.
“Truly a unique, multifaceted personality of our times! He will be missed by his countless admirers,” he added.
Khan was born on September 28, 1923 in a small village of Mardan, North-West Frontier Province, before the country gained its independence from British colonial India in 1947, to an ethnic Pashtun family of the Yusafzai tribe.
In 1949, Khan joined the prestigious Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) formerly known as District Management Group (DMG) after passing the competitive Central Superior Service (CSS) examination.
He started off his career in 1951 as the secretary to the chief minister of Sindh. His career was at peak when he served with the then chief martial law administrator Gen Zia-ul-Haq, responsible for the country’s internal security while intelligence efforts were built up to sabotage Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
A part of General’s Zia policy to enhance the secret establishment, Khan served as one of its elite member. After the fall of communism, Khan officially retired from the civil services and went on to become a human rights activist.
Before being appointed the secretary general – the highest rank in the bureaucracy, which could only be achieved after retirement by those who had served at BPS-22 grade, a position no longer in place – he held the position of interior secretary at Ministry of Interior.
Khan had held key public offices during the dictatorial regime of President General Zia-ul-Haq and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
During his long career, Khan served with five presidents –Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Zia-ul-Haq and Ghulam Ishaq Khan besides serving with three prime ministers.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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