Islamabad: The Principal Secretary Waqar Ahmed has responded to ‘allegations’ regarding the bills signing controversy in a letter to President Dr Arif Alvi, ARY News reported on Monday.
President Dr Arif Alvi’s Principal Secretary Waqar Ahmed termed all allegations against him as ‘baseless’ and offered to conduct an inquiry into the matter.
In his letter, Ahmed stated that the president’s statement created an impression of irregularities in the signing process of the bills. He requested President Dr Arif Alvi to hold an inquiry into the bills signing controversy through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to ascertain the responsible persons.
He told the president that he is fully aware of facts regarding both bills [Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023].
Waqar Ahmed clarified that he has no role in making any delay or neglecting the president’s orders and he is ready to record his statement. He demanded the president to withdraw orders for transferring his services to the Establishment Division.
He revealed in his letter that President Alvi did not issue any written order regarding the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023. He added that he wrote the letter to publicise the facts.
The principal secretary claimed that the president has neither signed the bills not issued a written order to return the bills unsigned. He further revealed that both bills were not received by the secretary’s office till today.
Prior to Ahmed’s letter today, the President’s Secretariat said the services of Secretary Waqar Ahmed were “no more required”.
“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,” said a statement posted by the President of Pakistan’s official account on X.
“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 added.
