Top baboos emergency huddle after Cheema’s arrest

LAHORE: An emergency meeting of Punjab bureaucracy chaired by Chief Secretary Capt Zahid Saeed (retd) was held at GOR-I Wednesday night to review the situation after the arrest of DMG officer Ahad Cheema by NAB on account of alleged irregularities in Ashiana Housing Scheme.

The meeting was attended by over 50 senior officers of Pakistan Administrative Service (formerly known as DMG Group) including Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Umar Rasul, ACS Home Maj Azam Suleman (retd), ACS Infrastructure Mian Mushtaq, Secretary Services Farhan Aziz Khawaja, Secretary Public Health Khurram Agha, Secretary Higher Education Nabeel Javed Awan, Special Secretary Finance Saifullah Dogar, DC Lahore Sumair Ahmad, LDA Director General Zahid Zaman and others attended the meeting.

The meeting continued for several hours and ended late night. It reviewed the situation in detail after Ahad Cheema’s arrest. The participants weighed the option of protest against the NAB and taking legal course against the arrest of their fellow bureaucrat. However, majority of the participants turned down the option of protest and emphasised to adopt legal course against Cheema’s arrest.

They were of the view that NAB overstepped its institutional jurisdiction. However, the participants decided to call a meeting of administrative secretaries of all provincial departments and heads of autonomous institutions for further consultation in this connection. Despite repeated attempts none of the participants was available for comment.