ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi has accorded his approval to the appointment of Ahad Cheema, a retired civil servant, as an advisor to the prime minister on the establishment, his office said.
Alvi accorded his approval on the advice of Shehbaz Sharif under Article 93 (1) of the Constitution, the presidency said in a press release.
Cheema spent three years in prison on unproven charges of “assets beyond means” before he was released on bail in April last year.
He was the first high profile arrest in Punjab by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) before the general elections of 2018. The agency had arrested him on February 21, 2018, when he appeared before its investigation team in an inquiry about Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme.
Later, the agency also initiated inquiries regarding the LDA City scam and assets beyond means against him. He has been granted bail in all three cases.
Cheema resigned from the civil service last week while expressing his distrust of his employer, the government of Pakistan, for acting as a silent spectator when he was roped into a “politically motivated campaign” spearheaded by the dirty money watchdog ahead of the 2018 elections and his ordeal all along.
