- NTS BoD clarifies Dr Khan had willingly tendered his application to relinquish additional charge as acting CEO
ISLAMABAD: The Board of Directors of the National Testing Service (NTS) on Tuesday refuted what it called the “baseless and malicious allegations” circulating in the media that Dr Sherzada Khan had been removed from the position of chief executive officer (CEO).
In a statement issued here, the NTS clarified that Dr Sherzada Khan had willingly tendered his application to relinquish the additional charge as acting CEO of the company on November 21 to the chairman, BoD of NTS.
The board in its meeting held the next day had accepted his application and assigned Prof Dr Brig (retd) Tayyab Akram the charge of NTS as CEO.
Earlier on November 17, media reports said that 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.
In his letter sent to the NTS board’s chairman Dr Raheel Qamar on Thursday, 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.
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.