LAHORE: Ex-Principal Information Officer (PIO) of the Ministry of Information Rao Tehsin Ali Khan is considering taking formal legal action against his dismissal, sources told Pakistan Today on Sunday.
He was sacked following a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office which was released on Saturday, ordering proceedings against him. PIO Rao was ordered to report to the Establishment Divison. The orders had come from the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself.
The prime minister also sacked Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and ordered the authorities to take action against PIO over the Dawn Leaks issue, as per a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The action was taken in response to the alleged involvement of the two officials in Dawn Leaks case, which relates to a story published by an English-language daily on October 6.
An inquiry committee was formed to probe the matter and a report was compiled which placed blame on Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and PIO Rao Tehsin—who was largely blamed for not being able to stop the leak of the sensitive information.
Rao Tehsin was the PIO since February 2014. He was a senior and highly acclaimed civil servant from the Information Services Group of the government of Pakistan. He joined civil services of Pakistan in 1982 and since then held important positions in various departments of Ministry, including PID, External Publicity Wing, EMRW, Cyber Wing and DEMP. He also served as MD, Associate Press of Pakistan, in addition to working in PTCL, NAVTEC and PEMRA in various capacities. He also held the important assignment of Pakistan’s Press Attaché in Canberra from 1995-2000.
It is pertinent to mention here that Press Information Department (PID) is the principal department of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage which is headed by Principal Information officer (PIO). PID is working since 1947 with the mission to establish an authentic source for timely dissemination of information to people through all forms of media. PID aims to publicise the government policies and also to apprise the government about the impact of its policies.