ISLAMABAD: While there are dozens of corruption inquiries pending before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against the officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology, a scientist was made an officer on special duty (OSD) for allegedly exposing illegal activities, especially in the Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), an attached department of the ministry.
Through a notification issued on January 7, 2020, the PSQCA made Technical Services Centre Lahore Director Dr Shehzad an OSD with immediate effect till further orders.
The notification was issued a couple of days after an inquiry was held by a two-member committee comprising Joint Electronics Adviser Abid Mehmood and Deputy Electronics Adviser Zawar Hussain on January 1. The committee was tasked to visit the PSQCA office in Lahore to physically verify all records and documents and to get a personal statement of Dr Shahzad Afzal. The committee was to investigate the alleged “white-collar corruption” of the said scientist.
According to insiders, the officials of the ministry had complained to Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry that Dr Shahzad had leaked the information pertaining to corruption and illegal activities at PSQCA to the media, which constituted defamation of the authority and the ministry.
The officials of PSQCA, who have pending inquiries in NAB and FIA, were annoyed over the voices being raised against them by some officials, including Dr Shahzad, within the department. Interestingly, the scientist, who was the head of PSQCA’s office in Lahore, was removed from his post while many other officials were restored to key posts in PSQCA soon after Fawad took charge of the ministry last year.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Dr Shahzad said that he had appeared before the inquiry committee despite reservations about one of its members, but the committee members neither provided any documents nor shared any details of the charges being levelled against him. “They did not even consider my letters sent to the ministry against the inquiry notice issued on January 1,” he said, adding that “the members were also not ready to record the hearing as I had serious reservations about Abid, who is the most corrupt official in PSQCA.”
“Abid has a tinted history. I am sure the committee was constituted on the behest of the corrupt lobby which considers me as a troublemaker for them,” Dr Shahzad, said. “Since they have no evidence or justification to suspend me, they made me an OSD to at least to keep me away from the office. I will challenge this in the court,” he added.
When contacted, the ministry’s spokesperson, Pir Suleman, said that Dr Shahzad was made OSD for his misbehavior with the inquiry team while the investigation against him was still in process. He claimed the scientist had allegedly issued certificates to a firm in violation of the set rules. He, however, did not share further details, saying that the inquiry was still going on.
It is worth mentioning here that in September last year, Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology had shared a list of Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) officials who were facing corruption inquiry for over a year and asked the ministry to suspend them before the next meeting.
