ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: The Senate standing on communications and postal services on Friday declared illegal the appointment of Maroof Afzal as the new chairman of the National Highway Authority (NHA).

“The new chairman has been appointed in violation of rules and regulations of the Authority,” said Senator Daud Khan Achakzai while chairing a meeting of the committee at Parliament House.

Mr Afzal took over the NHA on August 15 after his appointment was approved at the NHA Council meeting presided over by Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, the minister in-charge for communications and postal services.

His predecessor, Hamid Ali Khan, who was appointed by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, served for approximately seven months.

The chairman NHA is the in-charge of all highway construction projects and administration operations countrywide.

The Senate committee objected to the fact that Mr Iqbal was a Grade-20 officer while the NHA chairman was a Grade-22 post.

Secondly, the committee also questioned the engineering expertise of the new chairman.

They also questioned the transparency of the appointment.

The meeting was informed that as a standing operating procedure the prime minister selected one out of three names recommended to him by the NHA Council for the post.

However, in this case, the NHA Council had recommended the name of only Maroof Afzal after approval by the minister in-charge Sheikh Aftab.

During the meeting, the minister in-charge requested the committee to accept the appointment.

He tried to explain how he had personally headed the NHA Council meeting and approved the appointment of the new chairman.

But the committee members interpreted the appointment of Mr Afzal from Punjab as a case of political nepotism.

“The previous government practiced nepotism and violated merit to appoint favourites on important postings. The mistakes of the past government will not be repeated,” said Senator Achakzai.

The fact that the minister in-charge vouched for the new chairman of the NHA did not go down well with some members of the Senate standing committee.

Later, the committee chairman Achakzai formed a sub-committee to investigate the powers/authority of the minister in-charge to appoint officials on important positions.

The committee will also investigate whether the appointment of the chairman NHA was according to the rules and regulations of the NHA.

Senator Achakzai gave seven days to the sub-committee to submit its report.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Senator Mohammad Zahid Khan explained why the appointment of the chairman NHA was controversial.

“The Engineering Council Act clearly mentions that the chairman NHA has to have an engineering background. But Maroof Afzal lacks the expertise to run a technically challenging office,” he added.

Senator Achakzai elaborated how Maroof Afzal had superseded competent senior Grade 21 officers in the NHA.

“Such a practice of promoting junior officers out of turn is demoralising for the entire office,” he added. He also explained how the NHA had had three to four chairmen for over a year.

“They were all brought in violation of rules and regulations and, therefore, all the activities they performed were also illegal,” Mr Achakzai said.

The chairman once selected following rules and regulations cannot be removed before completing the two-year term.