Pakistan: Ahad Cheema appointed adviser to the PM on establishment
Cheema's who was the first high profile arrest in Punjab by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) before the general elections of 2018 in relation to the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme.
Islamabad: Ahad Cheema, a former civil servant and senior bureaucrat was appointed as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s adviser on establishment, by Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi on Thursday, Dawn reported.
Cheema’s who was the first high profile arrest in Punjab by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) before the general elections of 2018 in relation to the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme. Later, another inquiry was initiated against him regarding the LDA City scam and assets beyond means against him. Cheema was granted bail in all three cases in April last year.
A notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Thursday, states: “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president, on the advice of the prime minister, has been pleased to appoint Ahad Khan Cheema, as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Establishment, with the status of federal minister, with immediate effect.”
This comes just days after Cheema resigned his position in the civil service while expressing his distrust of his employer, the government of Pakistan, for acting as a silent spectator when he was roped into a “politically motivated campaign spearheaded by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ahead of the 2018 general election and his ordeal all along”.
Cheema had served 38 months (February 2018 to April 2021) in jail as an under trial in different NAB references.
On June 4, the Prime Minister’s Office accepted the resignation/ retirement from service.
