The minister said that it seems the appointment was made in a hurry and legal aspects were ignored.
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News – 17th June, 2019) Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has written to cabinet division against the appointment of ptv MD.
Fawad Chaudhry in his letter stated that the appointment seems a violation of law. He added that Arshad Khan’s appointment is also against Qasmi case in the Supreme Court.
The minister said that it seems the appointment was made in a hurry and legal aspects were ignored.
Fawad Chaudhry further stated that the prime minister’s authority is being used for an illegal appointments.
He said that Arshad Khan was earlier appointed the head of PTV Board at a salary package of over Rs17 lac, adding that the high court had accepted the petitions against his appointment.
He requested that the matter of reformulation of PTV Board should be sent to the federal government.
The Ministry for Information and Broadcasting had in April, 2019 removed Arshad Khan as the Managing Director (MD) of Pakistan Television Network (PTV).
Former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had replaced Arshad Khan with Colonel (r) Hassan.
Earlier, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had decided to hold an inquiry against PTV MD Arshad Khan in a case regarding benami cheques. Sources said the acting MD PTV was not appointed through a formal permission of the relevant board. They said the MD himself fixed his monthly salary to Rs 2.2 million. Sources informed that two Benami cheques of Rs 3.1 million and Rs 1.7 million were traced during the initial investigation.
During the Senate Committee meeting on March 5, PTV MD Arshad Khan had failed to convince the senate's standing committee for human rights regarding issue of pensions and wages of the state television's employees. The committee had also hinted at sending the matters of the Benami cheque and financial irregularities to the National Accountability Bureau.
Fawad Chaudhry had stated that Arshad Khan had lobbied to become the Managing Director and has asked for his resignation due to his inability to run the affairs of the state broadcaster.
