Director General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Ehtesab Commission Lt General (r) Hamid Khan resigned on Wednesday from his post.
Khan’s resignation comes after the KP Cabinet approved the draft of an ordinance to amend KP Ehtesab Commission (EC) Act 2014.
The draft was approved at a meeting chaired by KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and attended by administrative secretaries and cabinet ministers. Following the moot, KP government spokesperson Mushtaq Ghani shared details of the meeting with the media.
The war of words between Khan and the Chief Minister House kicked off on February 6 as both sides had conflicting views about the proposed amendments to legislation governing the accountability body.
While the director general of the commission told the CM in a letter that the credibility of the accountability process would be questioned if amendments to the KP Commission Act 2014 went ahead, the CM House failed to see the mention of any clause or law that would undermine the authority.
The DG’s letter was also sent to PTI Chairman Imran Khan and it urged the government to reconsider the amendments.
KPEC DG Lt General (r) Hamid Khan, while expressing his reservations over the amendments, said the commission was created to ensure better governance in the province by curbing corruption in public service delivery.
The letter stated that the commission conducted 90 enquiries, 43 investigations and 13 references in less than two years against ministers and bureaucrats. He said the cases were being processed in different courts, but efforts to weaken the authority of the commission would hamper enquiries and raise concerns about the intent of the PTI government. He said as the commission was actively pursuing enquiries on alleged corruption by ministers and bureaucrats, the proposed amendments would undermine the principle of an independent and transparent accountability process. The letter was sent on February 4, 2016.
