The promotees include Prime Minister's Private Secretary (1) AHM Nurul Islam, her Press Secretary Tajul Islam and Director General at PMO Safar Raj Hossain. They were elevated as additional secretaries.

Of the three, Nurul is expected to be appointed as the acting secretary to the premier as the post has long been lying vacant and Safar is likely to be made the acting secretary of a ministry, sources said.

It is not yet known whether Tajul will continue in the current post or be given a foreign posting. He has been acting as the prime minister's press secretary since his posting as a deputy secretary.

He has been elevated as the joint and additional secretary within a year.

Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Syed Nakib Muslim, who was promoted as joint secretary, is expected to be posted as the private secretary (1) to the premier.

Other officials who were elevated as additional secretaries include divisional commissioners AHM Abul Kashem, Mia Mustaq Ahmed, Nazrul Islam of Dhaka, Rajshahi and Sylhet and Additional Divisional Commi-ssioner of Dhaka Mohammad Abdul Alim Khan.

Private secretaries to the local government, rural development and cooperatives, agriculture, jute, textiles and commerce ministers Sharful Alam, Ayub Miah, Habibullah Majumder, CQK Mushtaq Ahmed and Elias Ahmed were promoted as joint secretaries.

Besides, Shahidul Haq, director at PMO, Humayun Kabir and Arfan Ali at Cabinet Division, AKM Helaluzzaman, Mohammad Mohsin and Khandaker Rashedul Haq at the establishment ministry and deputy commissioners of Dhaka, Kushtia, Barguna, Habiganj, Chapai-nawabganj, Tangail, Jamalpur and Madaripur were also made joint secretaries.

Highly placed sources at the PMO said new postings of the officials closely associated with the present government were already finalised and they would be given fresh postings by the next week.

Earlier, it was decided that the promotion and new postings would be given at the same time, but because of some complexities things did not take shape as planned, they added.