Tazeen Akhtar
The Planning Commission of Pakistan has created a new seat of Member Population equal to secretary level with salary package 15 to 20 Lakh per month for a lady who does not fulfill the criteria of the appointment and has dual nationality. A section officer of the establishment has issued the notification of her posting with the approval of the Prime Minister.
Dr. Shabana Haider, an MBBS, age 50, having a major experience in private US fundraising org Thinkwell headed by some Yogesh Rajkotia is now equal to grade 22 officer at SPPS-1 in Pakistan with 2 years contract from 13 Feb 2026 at Ministry of Planning and Special Initiatives, Islamabad.
The Special Professional Pay Scales (SPPS) in Pakistan, designed for high-level technical experts, feature a four-tier, all-inclusive monthly structure (as of 2024-2026): SPPS-1 PKR 1.5 to 2 Million.
She is a Canadian national and belongs to the pharma sector with no experience in the Population sector. She served in the Population Planning Board of Punjab for 03 years only. A person on the Member seat should carry an experience of minimum 18 years in the particulare field.
This scribe contacted all the concerned from Minister Ahsan Iqbal to the Member Development Communication with the queries as under ;
1- This seat was not existing at the ministry but has been specially created for Dr. Shabana Haider ?
2- She is a Canadian National ! How has she been selected for such a high level post in the service of Pakistan?
3- Her security clearance has not been processed. Is that a must for posting on these seats?
This scribe sent a query weeks ago to the minister but that time there was no response. On 14 Feb, on sending queries again, the concerned officials did not bother to respond as per the questions and sent a ready made answer ” Everything has been done as per rules”.
It is commonly known that the procedures are followed but the selection is done for the same person who is actually to be posted on the seat and for whom the process had been initiated.
Moreover, the officials of the ministry suggested this scribe to contact the Prime Minister Office for further details. The PMO officials turned this scribe again towards the ministry of planning. It was a football-like situation indeed.
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This scribe contacted Dr Shabana Haider for her point of view but she said that she was traveling and would contact at a reasonable time.
The ministry advertised the post on 01 Jan 2026 and the whole process of final posting was completed in the least time of one and half month. As mentioned above no security clearance has been conducted. Further the posting violates the very first two conditions of experience of 14 and 18 years, as mentioned by the ministry itself.
Her own CV speaks a lot about she does not qualify for the post. Her total experience with Public Sector (in Punjab) is 06 years only ;
1- Member Health Neutrition Population Planning Board Punjab – 02 years 10 months 14 days
2- Secretary/ Advisor SAARC Women Entrepreneurs – 01 year 01 month
3- Head Communication Punjab Health Care Commission – 01 year 11 month 19 days
The rest experience is working with private sector in US that spans on 11 years but all the NGOs, she worked for, have no international repute and they are just fund collecting orgs that is an easy business in Americas and EU.
While the ministry itself advertised the post, how can queries be referred to the Prime Minister office? PMO has directed the Ministry to create a seat and appoint this lady?
Here one thing is clear that it was special instruction from Prime Minister house to create a seat after population emergency was declared in Pakistan. The ministry followed the instruction only. But still the questions mentioned above remain unanswered………….
