Acting NTS chief refuses to step down: report

ISLAMABAD: Terming the decision to remove him as ‘illegal’’, acting National Testing Service (NTS) chief Sherzada Khan is refusing to step down, according to a report in a local English daily on Monday.

National Testing Service (NTS) acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Sherzada Khan had been sacked by the government and placed under an inquiry for allegations of misuse of authority, resources and incompetence, following a letter to the NTS Board of Directors chief from Minister of State for Science and Technology Mir Dostain Khan Domki.

The NTS is facing multiple investigations by the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after a questionnaire of the pre-admission test was leaked on October 21 in Sindh, just a day before the examination.

In his letter sent to the NTS board’s chairman Dr Raheel Qamar on Friday, State Minister Domki said that recent reports in the media and complaints against the testing authority had earned a bad name for the institution.

The minister instructed the BoD chairman to form a probe committee to look into the issue and ‘immediately dispense’ the services of Dr Khan as ‘precautionary measures’ until the inquiry was completed.

“This sorry state of affairs calls for immediate steps by the BoD to launch an inquiry into the issues and matters of NTS being looked after on acting charge basis by present CEO of NTS-Pakistan,” read the letter.

The minister also instructed to expand the scope of the inquiry to former CEOs, ex-chairman BoD and position holders (board of directors) among other officials concerned, adding that the inquiry report must be presented within a month’s time.

The letter came to fore a day after a customs court in Rawalpindi summoned six NTS officials including Sherzada Khan in a case pertaining to money-laundering and tax evasion of over two billion rupees.

However, on Saturday, Khan sent an email to the NTS employees claiming that the minister had no authority to remove him.

Supporting Khan’s statement, an official of the NTS said, “The recruitment body is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and under its rules and regulations only the BoD has the authority to remove Khan, not the ministry.”

On Sunday, a few members of the BoD met in Islamabad to mull a strategy to deal with the prevailing challenges that NTS is facing. As per reports, the acting CEO was not invited to attend the meeting which was chaired by COMSATS Executive Director Junaid Zaidi.

Clarifying his stance regarding the corruption allegations that the NTS and its management are facing, Khan claimed, “I ran the company as per the rules and tried to clean it and introduced strict checks and balances.” He also said that he had taken strict action against people who had been guilty of corrupt practices.

He said, “Some politicians in the Senate and the National Assembly are conspiring against the NTS and its CEO.”

Meanwhile, Senator Sherry Rehman also submitted an adjournment motion in the Senate for “non-action over alleged irregularities in the NTS, involvement in corrupt practices and killing merit in Pakistan”. Rehman also demanded a detailed probe to be conducted to investigate the irregularities of the NTS.