ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi’s secretary on Monday disputed any negligence or irregularity in handling two important pieces of legislation while requesting an inquiry, shortly after the presidential secretariat sought his removal from the post and demanded his return to the establishment division.
The situation emerged after the president announced in a social media post that he had not signed two bills granting widespread powers to the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, while calling into question the status of these legislations, which had recently been declared as laws.
The president accused his staff of insubordination on Sunday, adding that they had undermined his authority after he asked them to return the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill and Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill without signing them, since he did not agree with their content and wanted to render them ineffective.
Pakistan's President Arif Alvi speaks with Reuters in an interview after Pakistan's presidency was recognized as the world's first presidential secretariat running on clean energy, in Islamabad on October 27, 2021. (REUTERS/File)
Subsequently, his secretariat announced Monday afternoon that it no longer required the services of the secretary to the president, Waqar Ahmed, and was sending him back to the establishment division.
“The Honourable President has surrendered my services to the Establishment Division on 21-08-2023, which conveys a message to the general public and media that perhaps Secretary to the President is responsible for any irregularity in connection with [the] processing of the ... Bills,” Ahmed wrote in a confidential letter to the president, a copy of which is in possession of Arab News.
He recalled that the president had neither approved the bills nor said it in writing to send them back to parliament for reconsideration.
“I neither delayed [the] above mentioned two Bills nor committed any irregularity or negligence,” he added. “The said files are still lying in the office of Honourable President as of today i.e. 21-08-2023, therefore, the Honourable President’s judgment/decision to surrender [my] services [to] Secretary to the Establishment Division is not based on justice.”
Ahmed urged President Alvi to order an inquiry by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the facts and fix responsibility for any lapse committed by anyone.
He noted he was willing to appear before any court to present all the record to prove his innocence while calling for the decision to send him back to the establishment division to be withdrawn.
The president’s assertion that he had not signed the bill on the messaging platform X, formally known as Twitter, was unprecedent.
It prompted the country’s caretaker administration to point out that returning a bill without any observations from the president was against the relevant constitutional provision.
The caretaker setup also pointed out that if the president did not grant his assent to a bill or return it with objections, it was notified as law after the expiry of a 10-day period.
