DCO Lahore defends his previous appointment

District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) Lahore Ahad Cheema, here on Wednesday appearing before the Judicial Commission defended his previous appointment as Chairman Higher Education Department (HED) saying that the Chief Minister have discretion to appoint a 18 grade officer on the post of grade 20.
Cheema also tried to convince the commission that he was not a grade 18 officer but he was in "acting 19" grade, which is a promotion before being given regular 19 grade. But the commission comprising Justice Shahid Saeed said if he is not given 19 regular grade, he cannot be called grade 19 officer.
He said it is a common practice to appoint lower grade officer at higher posts due to shortage of officers in the province. He also said that the matter of his appointment has nothing to do with this mater. He said this inquiry commission could only handle the examination matter and not his posting matter.
Cheema said he has no role in being appointed as chairman HED or afterwards as DCO Lahore, both appointments of grade 20. Cheema also denied all allegations of misuse of authority against him by different chairmen of Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education and other officials. He did not know Majid Naeem and has no role in making his appointment as IT Consultant to handle the computerisation of examination in all BISEs of the provinces.
He said Punjab Boards Chairman Committee (PBCC) had terminated computer technician Yousuf Hamdani in July 2010 and made appointment of Majid Naeem as IT consultant. He said former chairman of Lahore LBISE Muhammad Akram Kashmiri had introduced Majid Naeem. At a query of the judge, Cheema said Majid was not his class fellow and Kashmiri was not their teacher.
On court a query, Cheema said obviously there was political element in protest and setting fire of Gujranwala BISE. He said PPP leaders have already revealed the truth in a press conference in Lahore about that incident. Ijaz Munir, serving chairman of HED, also appeared before the court and said according to minutes of a meeting of PBCC, the PBCC have given two instalments of Rs 120,000 each to Majid Naeem as expert fee. He was to be given Rs 0.5 million as expert fee in four instalments.
He said there were faults in the online system but proactive BISEs had minimised them. At this the judge said the HED by issuing a threatening letter had handicapped BISEs and barred them from making any results on their own. The commission will hold the proceedings on November 22.