President Alvi sacks Secretary Waqar after bills fiasco,
Alvi Needs to Come Clean,
No assented nor gave written decision for returning army, secrets bills: secretary,
ISLAMABAD– President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday surrendered the services of his secretary Waqar Ahmed to the Establishment Division as the row over signing of bills related to Official Secrets Act and Army Act has intensified.
The president shared the development on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, saying: “In view of the definite statement of yesterday, President’s Secretariat has written a letter to Principal Secretary to Prime Minister that the services of Mr. Waqar Ahmed, Secretary to President, are no more required and are surrendered to the Establishment Division, immediately”.
He also sought the appointment of Humaira Ahmed, a BPS-22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, as Secretary to the president.
It has also been desired that Ms. Humaira Ahmed, a BPS-22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, may be posted as Secretary to the President,” the statement further added.
It has also been desired that Ms. Humaira Ahmed, a BPS-22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, may be posted as Secretary to the President.
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) August 21, 2023
A day earlier, President Alvi said that he did not sign Official Secrets Amendment Bill 2023 and Pakistan Army Amendment Bill 2023 as he disagreed with these laws.
On social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, the president said he had asked his staff to return the bills unsigned within stipulated time to make them ineffective.
“I confirmed from them many times that whether they have been returned & was assured that they were. However I have found out today that my staff undermined my will and command,” the president added.
The statement comes after it emerged that the president has signed both bills into law.
On July 31, the National Assembly had passed the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2023 with an aim to penalise individuals with a potential five-year imprisonment term for disclosing sensitive information concerning national security or the armed forces.
Separately, the Official Secrets Act got the Lower House’s nod just a few days before the dissolution of the National Assembly on Aug 7.
When the President returns a Bill to Parliament for reconsideration, he does not merely tell his staff orally to return it. He writes a letter to Parliament signed by him, expressing his disagreement, and tells his staff to send it to Parliament. President Arif Alvi was deliberately evasive about this in his tweet. He obfuscated, dissembled, and made no mention of it. All he said in his tweet was that he asked his staff to return the Bill to Parliament, and his staff said they had done so. But surely this was not enough. He should have mentioned whether he wrote and signed a letter addressed to Parliament, and handed it to his staff for conveying it to Parliament.
Even assuming he wrote it, but his staff did not forward that letter to Parliament, President Alvi must be having a copy of that letter, if he ever wrote it. Let him produce it, instead of indulging in sophistry, equivocation and discombobulation.
Strangely, neither do lawyers, nor the media, nor others commenting on this episode, delve into this issue. Should such people, particularly the media, not have asked this vital question instead of merely screaming and raising a hue and cry over it?
Since President Alvi has not produced this letter, nor clarified whether he wrote it, his veracity and credibility becomes questionable, as a cloak of mystery is cast over the entire statement in his tweet, notwithstanding his taking the name of Allah.
While,
Secretary to the president, Waqar Ahmed on Monday issued a statement saying that President Dr Arif Alvi neither assented to the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2023 nor gave a written decision for returning them to parliament for reconsideration.
