Sikandar Sultan Raja is a retired Pakistani

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

who serves as the

Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan The Chief Election Commissioner is the authority and the appointed chair of the Election Commission of Pakistan— an institution constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national and provincial legislatures. Befor ...

, in office since January 2020. He belongs to the

Pakistan Administrative Service The Pakistan Administrative Service, or PAS ( ur, ) (previously known as the District Management Group or DMG before 1 June 2012) is an elite cadre of the Civil Services of Pakistan. The Pakistan Administrative Service over the years has emerg ...

and is batchmates with Rizwan Ahmed, Hussain Asghar,

Fawad Hasan Fawad Fawad Hasan Fawad ( ur, ) (born 14 January 1960) is a retired Pakistani civil servant who served in BPS-22 grade as the Principal Secretary to two Prime Ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Fawad belongs to the Pakistan Adminis ...

and

Jawad Rafique Malik Jawad Rafique Malik (Urdu: جواد رفیق ملک) is a Pakistani civil servant who serves in BPS-22 grade as Industries Secretary of Pakistan. Hailing from Lahore, Malik belongs to the Pakistan Administrative Service and is batchmates with ...

. Raja retired from

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in BPS-22 grade. He has the honour of having served at the top

bureaucratic The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

positions such as the Railways Secretary, Petroleum Secretary, SAFFRON Secretary,

Federal Secretary The federal secretary (also referred to as the secretary to the Government of Pakistan) is the highest-ranking position in the Government of Pakistan, occupied by the most senior civil servant in a specific ministry or division. The secretary is ...

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

and Chief Secretary of both

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

and

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

. Raja is the son-in-law of Saeed Mehdi, the former

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Pakistan The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Pakistan (also referred to as PSPM or PM's Chief of Staff) is the administrative head and highest-ranking official of the Prime Minister's Office. The position holder is usually an officer belongi ...

and Chief Secretary Sindh. Sikandar was appointed Chief election

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

by the bipartisan parliamentary committee unanimously in January 2020.

Family

Raja's father remained a Major in

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

. Raja has four brothers and four sisters. The eldest brother by the name of Zafar Sultan Raja is a retired Colonel from Pakistan Army. The second eldest brother Mazhar Sultan Raja has an agrarian background. The third eldest brother is Azhar Sultan Raja who is a Civil Engineer retired as Chief Engineer from C & W Department (Punjab). The youngest brother Fakhar Sultan Raja is a CSP Officer who hails from Pakistan Police Service and currently posted as DIG Pakistan Motorways. Raja’s eldest brother in law Nisar Ahmed Malik was a Mechanical Engineer and retired as Superintending Engineer from Irrigation and Power Department (Punjab). His second brother in law Nasrullah Ranjha was Additional Session Judge. His third brother in law Zafar Javed Malik was retired as Deputy Commissioner Faisalabad and his fourth brother in law Imtiaz Ahmed Dev was a CSP Officer from Inland Revenue Services (IRS) and retired as Commissioner from IRS. He is also related to Amir Ali Ahmad Chief Commissioner Islamabad, Zohaib Ranjha Former SP Investigation (Lahore), Muhammad Ali Former DC Faisalabad, SSP Sarfraz Virk Former DPO Jhang and SP Bilal Zafar Former DPO Chiniot. Raja is the son-in-law of Saeed Mehdi- a former top bureaucrat who served as Principal Secretary to PM

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi language, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime ...

. Raja's wife, Rabab Sikandar, is a serving Customs official. Raja has two sons and one daughter

Career & education

Raja was born in a village near Bhera in district Sargodha. He got his earlier education from government high school Bhera and later went on to do his FSC from

Cadet College Hasan Abdal Cadet College, Hasan Abdal (CCH) Urdu/Pashto :کیدت کالج/کیڈٹ کالج حسن ابدال is a residential secondary school located in Hasan Abdal, Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan. The college has over 500 enrolled students aged 13 ...

and then went on to

King Edward Medical University King Edward Medical University (KEMU) () is a public medical university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1860, the university is named after King Edward VII. Established by the British Raj, named as Lahore Medical School. In 1868 ...

to earn a bachelor's degree in medicine. He also did LLB from Punjab University. He was then inducted into the Pakistan Administrative Service and started off his career with his first post as Assistant Commissioner

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

in 1989. Raja has served on key positions, including Deputy Commissioner

and Punjab's provincial Secretary of Communications & Works (C&W), Services and General Administration (S&GAD), and Local Government before briefly serving as ACS (G) in Punjab. He has also served as Chief Secretary for the provinces of Gilgit Baltistan as well as Azad Jammu Kashmir. He remained as Director General Immigration and Passport under the administration of Prime Minister

. Raja was promoted to the rank of

in 2017. He served in the important position of Secretary Petroleum from April 2017 till August 2018. In November 2018, Prime Minister

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

appointed Raja as the Railways Secretary of Pakistan and Chairman Pakistan Railways. He served as Railways Secretary and Chairman Pakistan Railways until December 2019. In January 2020, Imran Khan appointed him to the all-important post of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raja, Sikandar Sultan Pakistani civil servants Government of Pakistan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people