ISLAMABAD  -  After months’ long bureaucratic cold war, the Chairman National Highway Authority Sharyar Sultan has prevailed as he successfully managed to get appointment of his choice officer as new Member Administration.

According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division, a senior officer of the Military Lands and Cantonments Group Omer Sadique Chaudhry is appointed as new Member Administration NHA.

Earlier in a rare move, the federal government had appointed a Grade-20 officer of Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service Mansoor Azam as Member Admin — a post which once considered as a prized position for the officers of Pakistan Administrative Services and usually they were appointed.  

However, Azam could not get backing of the incumbent chairman as he was not happy with his working style and decided to replace him with a new officer.

Resultantly, a summary for the appointment of Chaudhry was moved by the Ministry of Communications in October 2024. 

Sources informed that Azam was considered as a choice of the Federal Minister Economic Affairs Division Ahad Cheema, who is also supervising the Establishment Division and he became hurdle in his removal. 

Meanwhile, as per the relevant officers, though there was no formal order of Chaudhry as Member Admin but he was continuously attending chairman office and also running the affairs in an informal way. According to the sources, the original summary indicated that the authority wants to retain Mansoor Azam in NHA but not as Member Administration. 

The Establishment Division has appointed new member administration however the fate of Mansoor Azam is yet to be clarified. 

Sources informed that Cheema tried his best to keep Mansoor Azam continued as member but finally Chairman NHA prevailed, who has the backing of Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan. It is pertinent to mention here that there were strong rumours that Aleem Khan would be replaced with somebody else as Minister of Communications in next cabinet expansion. 

However, his recent interest shown in the Ministry of Communications gave an impression that he is interested to retain the portfolio of communications on permanent basis in this government.