President fires top aide

ISLAMABAD: After yesterday’s tweet about not sending back assent on legislations pertaining to ammendments in the Army Act and Official Secrets act, the President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi has taken everyone by surprise yet again.

President Alvi informed, via a post from the presidency’s official account on X, that he had  ‘surrendered’ the services of Secretary to President , Waqar Ahmed Khan, back to the establishment division.

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.

— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) August 21, 2023

In a follow up tweet, he showed his desire to appoint grade 22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, Humaira Ahmed in his place.

The tweet comes in the wake of the much-discussed revelation by the president on Sunday in which he said, “I did not sign Official Secrets Amendment Bill 2023 & Pakistan Army Amendment Bill 2023 as I disagreed with these laws. I asked my staff to return the bills unsigned within stipulated time to make them ineffective.”

The tweet was followed by a statement by the Ministry of Law and Justice in which it maintained that the president had gone ‘against the letter and spirit’ of the constitution. “It is a matter of concern that the President has chosen to discredit his own officials. The President should take responsibility for his own actions,” it read.

More: PTI to move SC in support of Alvi’s tweet on unsigned bills