ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The new army chief of Pakistan has ordered the withdrawal of military officers from the government's civil departments, officials said yesterday, an action that reverses an important policy of his predecessor, President Pervez Musharraf.

The order by the chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, was his boldest step to disentangle the military from the civilian sphere of the government since he assumed the post after Musharraf stepped down as military chief in November.

An army spokesman said Kayani made the decision last week. But the order was announced yesterday, less than a week before parliamentary elections Feb. 18. It was welcomed by Musharraf critics, who have long demanded that the military distance itself from politics.

Pakistan faces further deterioration of law and order in the northwestern tribal areas along the Afghan border, a refuge for the Taliban, al-Qaida and their allies. Two technicians working for Pakistan's atomic agency were reported to have been kidnapped there yesterday, and the police said they had no word on the fate of Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who was reported missing Monday after he tried to drive through the Khyber Pass headed to Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials said they believed the ambassador had been kidnapped, but they blamed local criminals.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, said Kayani decided last week to recall military officers from civil departments and that it would take three to six months to complete the withdrawal.

"A letter has been written by the Ministry of Defense to work out the details of getting the release of military officers working in several civilian departments," he said yesterday.

As army chief, Kayani has moved gradually to separate the military from civil affairs and politics, ending an unpopular policy of Musharraf, who had moved the military into running Pakistan's affairs since taking power in a coup in 1999.

Last month, Kayani warned officers not to maintain contacts with politicians.

Ikram Sehgal, a former military officer and editor of Defense Journal, said Kayani's actions were overdue and showed "the seriousness of the army in getting out of civilian affairs."

Sehgal said he saw the withdrawal as "solely on the directions of Kayani." If Musharraf had wanted to do this, Sehgal said, "he would have done it many months ago."

Local news media reported that army officers would be withdrawn from 23 civil departments, including the National Highway Authority, National Accountability Bureau, Ministry of Education, and Water and Power Development Authority.

Azizuddin, the Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, disappeared after he left Peshawar, a Pakistani frontier town, and headed through the tribal areas to the Afghan border on Monday morning. He did not meet his security escort waiting in Afghanistan, said Muhammad Naeem, the news media counselor at the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.

The ambassador was in his official car, with a guard and a driver, Naeem said. The embassy lost phone contact with him half an hour after he left Peshawar.

Azizuddin's vehicle was found yesterday off the road in an area known as Spinkumar, where had last been seen, officials said.

The two abducted officials belonging to Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission were identified only as technicians, local news media reported.

They were seized Monday with their driver and five other local residents. The five local residents were released.