Lahore District Coordination Officer (DCO) Ahad Cheema on Wednesday failed to give a satisfactorily answer the Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice and Judicial Enquiry Commission Chairman Shahid Saeed’s questions during a cross-examination aimed at ascertaining the personnel responsible for the intermediate results fiasco in Punjab and said he had nothing to with Dr Majid Naeem’s appointment. Cheema came in the line of fire during the enquiry commission’s proceedings for introducing an untested and defective computerised online examination data-processing system in eight Punjab boards during his tenure as Punjab Higher Education secretary, before becoming the Lahore DCO.
Naeem, ‘the godfather’ of the failed online system has been summoned on November 22 by the commission.
Clearly expecting preferential treatment, the DCO ambled into the judge’s chambers. He was, however, directed to leave and wait his turn outside in the courtroom hall. Punjab Higher Education Secretary Ijaz Munir informed the commission that the errors had occurred due to IT consultant Dr Naeem and Cheema, because the system had been faulty and they had put it to use untested, abolishing the manual system in haste. Majid has been said to be a close relative of Shahbaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar. Munir seemed hesitant while answering the queries of the commission. The judge reassured him that he would not be harmed for speaking the truth regarding the culprits behind the failure of the online examination system, which had compelled a student to commit suicide. The judge demanded to know who had appointed Majid when he had already been expelled on corruption charges from three departments, including the Punjab University.
Cheema denied any role in Majid’s appointment, adding that he did not have any close links or relations with him, as was being alleged by some quarters. He said “I was also not consulted by the government while hiring him, despite the fact that I was the Punjab Higher Education secretary at that time.” The judge, however, said Cheema had helped Majid establish his authority on the boards’ chairmen in Punjab.
Cheema reiterated that he had no relations with either of them. The judge said Cheema had written a threatening letter to the boards’ chairmen, directing them to obey Majid’s orders on all matters, and directed his registrar to read the letter loud in court. The judge said Majid had been appointed without an advertisement being given in the newspapers, which was mandatory for the appointment and demanded to know why a notification of the appointment had not been issued. The DCO mumbled that the government had appointed Majid, and he had not been consulted on the matter. Explaining why he, a grade-18 officer had been appointed on a grade-20 seat, Cheema said the government had the authority to appoint any officer on any seat. In the previous hearing the DCO had defended Majid and his online system. Now, however, he completely distanced himself from the latter.
