Nawaz’s ex-secretary inducted in interim cabinet

Fawad Hasan Fawad, former principal secretary to ex-premier Nawaz Sharif, on Tuesday was inducted into the interim cabinet.

President Dr Arif Alvi approved his appointment under Article 224 (1A) on the advice of caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Fawad in July 2018 on charges of corruption in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and three other projects.

The top anti-graft body had accused Fawad of owning illegal assets worth billions of rupees.

NAB accused Fawad of misusing his authority to award the contract for the housing scheme to his “preferred” developers.

It further said the bureaucrat had caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer in various scams.

His application for acquittal remained unassigned on the desk of former chief justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa for nine months.

He was finally granted bail after his date of retirement in 2020 by the Lahore High Court in the assets beyond means case on the completion of 33 years of service, 19 months of which he spent in jail.

The court had directed him to submit surety bonds worth Rs10 million to avail the bail.

An LHC division bench – comprising Justice Muhammad Tariq Abbasi and Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmad – heard the post-arrest bail petition filed by Fawad on January 21, 2020.

During the proceedings, Fawad's counsel argued that NAB had arrested his client in 2018, but he was still not indicted in the case.

He submitted to the court that it was claimed at the time of Fawad’s arrest that he owned assets worth billions of rupees, but only possessions worth Rs108 million were mentioned in the NAB reference.

When NAB failed to provide any solid evidence against him, an accountability court in Lahore acquitted Fawad, his wife, brother and Dr Anjum Hassan in the case in February this year.

Fawad held the post of the director general of the Civil Service Academy in Lahore before his retirement.

Fawad also served as secretary to former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and was regarded as the most powerful bureaucrat while the PML-N was in power.

The former bureaucrat held several posts in his long career.

He served as secretary to various departments including excise and taxation; communication and works; health, and Punjab government’s S&GAD.

He also held the positions of the deputy commissioner of Quetta and Lahore.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), caretaker Federal Information Minister Murtaza Solangi welcomed the former bureaucrat to the cabinet.

“Make the country proud as you always have. Looking forward to work with you and tap into your rich reservoir of knowledge and experience,” he added.