ISLAMABAD  -  A long awaited reformation of National Highway Council has been done by the federal government after appointment of Mian Shuja-ud-Din Zaka as its chairman and two independent members Nayyar Saeed and Sheheryar Iftikhar Khan. Shuja Ud Din Zaka is a former accountant general of Punjab while Nayyar Saeed is an engineer by profession, who served as executive engineer in Cmmunications and Work Department Punjab.

Meanwhile, Sheheryar Iftikhar Khan is a banker by profession and he has the privilege to serve on some other board of government institutions as independent member.

It is pertinent to mention here that the top level policy making of National Highway Authority was hampered badly due to unavailability of the National Highway Council as its formation was awaited from June 2024.

As per a newly enacted State Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) Act 2024 and National Highway Authority (Amendment) Act, 2024, the federal government has to take multiple steps to reform the National Highway Council (NHC) and NHA Executive board.After the new legislation, the road authority would be controlled by a Chief Executive Officer instead of the Chairman while the CEO will be appointed by NHC, which has now notified by the federal government after months long delay.

As per the new act, NHC which would be now an apex policy making body of the road authority will have five private members while the Chairman NHC would also be chosen from these private members by the federal government. The other members include the CEO of the NHA, Secretary Finance, Secretary Planning and Secretary Communications.

However, the federal government only approved the appointment of aforementioned three members and it has yet to appoint two more members.

All the general policy decisions would be made by the NHC including approval of the five years’ plans, the annual maintenance plan, approval of the annual development and non-development budget and many other important issues.

Meanwhile, the NHA’s executive board is also restructured under new legislation. The CEO NHA would be the chairman of the executive board while member engineering, member planning, member finance, member public private partnership and member aided projects would be the members of this board. NHA executive board would be responsible for the management of the Authority and for its procedures in financial and other matters under delegation from the board and subject to the oversight and directions of the NHC.

It will also ensure the proper implementation of strategies and policies approved by the highway council and put in place appropriate arrangements to ensure that funds and resources are properly safeguarded and are used economically, efficiently and effectively and in accordance with the Authority’s plan.

The reforms were made under the direction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to effectively and efficiently run the state owned enterprises.