Deputy finance sec’s job on the line
ISLAMABAD – Minister of State for Environment Major (r) Tahir Iqbal on July 14 announced he would suspend a senior bureaucrat of his ministry who reportedly misbehaved with a female journalist in his office on July 10.
The minister was reluctant to make a categorical statement before Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and other members of the federal cabinet asked him to do so.
He assured the house that he would issue Deputy Finance Secretary Asif Rehman’s suspension orders soon after Wednesday’s proceedings of the Senate. He added that further action would be taken against Mr Rehman after an inquiry report.
Sheikh Rashid condemned the incident and said that the bureaucracy should not be left unchecked. “We must rein in the unbridled bureaucrats,” he added.
The Aabpara Police already registered a case against Mr Rehman under sections 342, 354 and 500 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
A woman reporter Saima Zahoor of an Urdu Daily had accused Mr Rehman last Saturday of misbehaving with her and keeping her in illegal confinement in his office. After the incident, journalists protested and boycotted Senate proceedings. Treasury and opposition members also demanded the government take stern action against the deputy finance secretary.
Source: Daily Times
Date:7/15/2004
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