ISLAMABAD  -  After refusal of the Member Engineering Coordination Naseem Khattak to continue his position due to ‘unjustified pressure’ and ‘humiliation’, the National Highway Authority has given the charge of the said position to its senior officer Shahid Ihsanullah.

Sources informed that besides his best efforts to restore the stolen protective fence installed on motorways, Naseem Khattak was continuously being pressurized or even humiliated on some occasions by a senior officer of the ministry of communications.

Resultantly, he has sought two months leave from the Chairman NHA on personal grounds on Wednesday, which was granted accordingly but as per a separate notification issued on Thursday he has been removed from his position as he is directed to report on admin pool once his leave period would be ended.

Mr. Khattak remained posted as member engineering coordination for about three years and he was well-versed with the working style of NHA due to his experience of working on both field and headquarters assignments.

Meanwhile, the new member engineering coordination Shahid Ihsanullah is a grade-21 officer of NHA’s engineering cadre and he is set to retire after a few months. In the recent past, he remained as a member of Balochistan for an extended period of time but a few months ago he was also removed from his position.

However, later he was appointed as Member Aided Projects in NHA headquarters and now he will look after the affairs of the post of Member Engineering Coordination as well.    

It is relevant to note here that after taking notice of the broken fence, the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed NHA to not only restore the protective fence across its motorways’ network in one month but also fix a responsibility on the culprits.

A committee headed by an additional secretary communication is doing a regular inquiry on this matter but at the same time NHA has also started installing fence on war footing but an unusual pressure was quite visible from the Ministry of Communications on road authority’s officers.  

It is pertinent to mention here that there were 4,027 kilometres of protective fence installed on the motorways across the country, out of which, only 859 kilometres of protective fence were either stolen or damaged, due to which 36 accidents were reported and 178 first information reports (FIRs) were registered in the last four years in this regard.

After a legislation regarding the declaration of motorways as a strategic asset, NHA and motorway police were preparing to launch strict action against those who damage the fence on motorways as per the law and Prime Minister’s notice over the issue was being considered as a blessing in disguise by the concerned circles.

However, according to well-placed sources the issue and Prime Minister’s directions were being used to settle the personal score and the removal of member engineering coordination is one of its examples.