Shaukat Aziz accused of appointing corrupt man

PML-N Spokesman Siddiq-ul-Farooq has said a corrupt and incompetent person had been appointed as the head of the Competition Commission on a hefty package in the tenure of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz.

Talking to media persons here on Sunday, he said Shaukat Aziz in his tenure as prime minister had appointed his subordinate retired officer in the World Bank, Khalid Mirza, as the head of the Competition Commission. After taking charge of the office, he said, Khalid Mirza started threatening old employees of monopoly control authority and hired handsome, beautiful and unskilled people, especially girls, by violating rules and regulations and breaching merit.

The salary package and privileges of these blue-eyed employees of the Competition Commission was also in the control of Khalid Mirza instead of akin to grade, he said, adding that the monopoly control authority was changed into the Competition Commission through a presidential ordinance in 2007. Opposition parties, including the PPP, PML-N and MMA, in the tenure of the former government had taken the issue in assembly when the Competition Commission chairman handed over a letter regarding the six-month ad-hoc duty to the employees but today, unfortunately, the old employees are still without their due salary packages and privileges, he said.

Instead of using the old building of the monopoly control authority, Competition Commission Chairman Khalid Mirza has taken a new building in the diplomatic enclave with a monthly rent of Rs2,400,000, Siddiq-ul-Farooq said.

The Competition Commission is a public department while the diplomatic enclave is a high-profile security zone where the ordinary people cannot enter, he said. Khalid Mirza also purchased furniture for the office amounting to Rs700,000 and only 30 employees and officers are using it, he added. In order to earn more money, he said, Khalid Mirza appointed Shafqat Hussain as director general, Umer Nazir as director general of two departments, Qaiser Khan Khattak as director admin and Akram-ul-Haq as director information technology.