Born in 1936, Imtiaz Ahmad Sahibzada, joined the erstwhile Civil Service of Pakistan in 1959. After serving in a number of assignments in the provincial bureaucracy of KPK, including that of the Chief Secretary, he was transferred to Islamabad in 1987. There he served as Secretary to the Federal Government in different ministries and superannuated in 1996 as the Cabinet Secretary. Thereafter, he went on to become a member of Federal Public Service Commission, a member of the National Security Council, Chairman of the Federal Lands Commission, Wafaqi Mohtasib (Ombdusman) of Pakistan and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Tribal Affairs. He finally retired from public service in 2008. He is the author of two books: The Pilgrim of Beauty and A Breath of Fresh Air. While the former is a collection of selected poems of Ghani Khan (Bacha Khan’s son) translated into English from Pakhto, the latter is a compilation of the speeches and interventions of Ghani Khan in the Central Legislative Assembly of India, 1946. Sahibzada had a close friendship with Abdul Ghani Khan, an artist, a member of the Indian legislative Assembly (1946-47) and one of the greatest Pakhto poets. He first met him in 1947 and remained closely associated with him until his death in 1996.

Imtiaz Ahmad Sahibzada