Political appointee says he is apolitical

There is a Ministry Secretary who refuses to attend official conferences held with the Prime Minister in the chair, they say.

This Ministry Secretary who himself is a political appointee maintains that the conferences the Prime Minister presides over are political events and he, being an apolitical official is not required to attend such conferences. So he has made it a point to attend only conferences chaired by his Deputy Minister or the Cabinet Minister.

When queried by the Deputy Minister why he was not participating in the conferences chaired by the Prime Minister, the secretary is reported to have retorted that he had got his appointment as he possessed the maximum qualifications for the post and therefore, he was not prepared to follow the dictates of political henchmen.