ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has appointed National Assembly (NA) Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik as chairman of the National Highways Authority (NHA) as he was facing opposition over asking for reports about lavish spending of speaker’s office.
Former NA secretary himself put an application before the PM for change in the portfolio as speaker’s office was unhappy with him because of speaking against illegal appointments, violations of merit and out of way promotions in NA speaker’s office.
Jawad Rafique Malik remained NA secretary for the shortest period as he took office in April and left in November. Soon after assuming charge, he started asking for administrative and fiscal reports and raised objections over TA/DA, bills and millions of rupees in travel expenses which the speaker and his staff incurred during foreign trips.
Following this, the lobby of the office turned against him when Jawad Rafique Malik negated to bend against the illegal practices of speaker’s office and even refused to sign some bills.
NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had started calling Special Secretary Sohail Lodhi in important meetings instead of NA secretary because Jawad had refused to obey illegal orders of Ayaz Sadiq due to his clean and transparent career.
NA Spokesman Mohsin Iqbal said that the change of secretary was a routine matter and news of the confrontation between the former secretary and speaker’s office was not true.