PESHAWAR: In a strange move, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Friday made dissident MPA of the ruling PTI Javed Nasim as parliamentary secretary.

Javed Nasim was expelled from the PTI last year for violating party discipline.

A notification issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, a copy of which is available with Dawn, stated: “the competent authority has notified Javed Nasim, MPA PK-03, as parliamentary secretary. Further necessary action in matter may kindly be taken accordingly under imitation to this secretariat at the earliest.”

Javed Nasim’s appointment as parliamentary secretary baffled many PTI MPAs.

A PTI lawmaker told Dawn requesting anonymity that apparently, the chief minister wanted to form own group in the house and that was why Nasim had accommodated as parliamentary secretary.

“We’re unaware of this development and learned about it through the media,” he said.

The MPA said Javed Nasim spoke against PTI chief Imran Khan even on Friday, so it was strange to see him get the parliamentary secretary’s office.

Interestingly, Nasim was part of the first batch of 32 lawmakers, who were made parliamentary secretaries in September 2013.

However, 22 of them, including Nasim, lost the office after the government came under fire for appointing parliamentary secretaries in such a large number.

Nasim had been at loggerheads with the PTI leadership for more than a year. His party membership was suspended in October last year after he staged a sit-in against the chief minister in Peshawar.

Nasim was again in the headlines earlier this year for seconding nomination papers of two independent candidates for Senate elections.

The PTI was quick to expel him before asking the Election Commission of Pakistan to disqualify him as MPA.

However, Nasim opted not to case vote in the Senate elections.

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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