ISLAMABAD: Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sherzada Khan has been relieved of the additional charge of chief executive officer (CEO) by the National Testing Service (NTS) Board of Directors following allegations of corruption, money laundering and leaking of examination papers against him.
Brigadier (r) Tayyab Akram of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) has been appointed as new NTS CEO in Sherzada Khan’s place.
This was decided in an exclusive meeting held by the NTS Board of Directors in Islamabad, following a letter that was given out by Minister for Science and Technology Mir Dostain Khan Domki on November 18, ordering the removal.
Sherzada was given the additional charge as CEO on November 4, 2016, in place of the then chief Haroon Rashid after he was removed in a plagiarised PhD thesis case.
The court has already frozen all assets as well as bank accounts of NTS COO Sherzada, Dr Junaid Zaidi, Dr Muhammad Suhail, Dr Izhar Hussain and Dr Shahid Awan. All of the accused are required to deposit Rs100,000 worth of surety bonds.
The NTS board of directors did not remove Sherzada as COO, as they thought that “NTS might fall into crisis”.
Senator Sherry Rehman has already submitted an adjournment motion in the Senate for “non-action over alleged irregularities in the NTS, involvement in corrupt practices and killing of merit in the country”.
Her motion is likely to be taken up next week by the Senate.
