Daily Times

In what a worse example of political point scoring, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs (SAPM) Shaza Khawaja Fatima held a fake prize distribution ceremony for young sportsperson to let down to her party political rival Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, Daily Times has learnt reliably.

The SAPM Fatima followed this practice to set a positive narrative of her party among the youth that are studying at higher education level.

According to the available information, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, in joint collaboration with Comsats University Islamabad (CUI) and Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) Rawalpindi, was conducting Volleyball trials under Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) in Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), Mirpur. The PMYP was renamed from Prime Minister Kamyab Jawan Programme and has been used in previous tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tenure.

The sources privy to the development said that an awkward situation occurred when the relevant officials of the officers PMYP and HEC sports wing, who have been deputed at the event, were directed by SAPM Fatima’s staffers to invite Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) stalwart in AJK Chaudhry Sohaib Saeed as a chief guest of the ceremony.

However, Vice Chancellor MUST Dr Muhammad Younus Javed, categorically denied to get such practice done at university premises justifying that in case of such presence it could have a political event while, the VC said, any kind of political activity at educational institution is not allowed by law.

The denial perturbed the SAPM who directed her staffers to arrange a “fake” ceremony at Chaudhry Saeed’s house and release pictures and handout to media accordingly.

The staffers accomplished the mission subsequently. A fake picture of a poster inscribed PMYP with a picture of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif can be seen that was fixed at Saeed’s house.

When contacted by Daily Times, the SAPM Fatima denied speaking over the issue.

A senior official at the HEC regretted that such practices are not only regretful but also cause of spoiling merit and institutional reputations. “Instead of using such a mega program for her small political purpose, the SAPM should use it for broader national interest,” he suggested, adding that it is a millions worth rupees program and has a vision for thousands of young talented people to be benefitted from this. “If it is used merely for doing politics then no kind of talent production could be expected,” he regretted.

Moreover, as per details, the ongoing trials in Mirpur are part of a series of trials being taken throughout the country. The SAPM Shaza Fatima is directly supervising the trials and is ensuring political representation in every trial site, said a senior official at the HEC while wishing anonymity, adding that in recent she visited Government College University Sialkot and was embarrassed when the Vice Chancellor praised the previous government initiatives. “It is on-record that she got furious by such a movement,” he recalled.

As per document, previously the SAPM also used her office for political gains as she invited MPA Punjab Assembly Rana Mashood Ali Khan as Chief Guest at the closing ceremony of Provincial League and Provincial League Wrestling in Punjab. The SAPM herself was Guest of Honour at National League Wrestling and Weightlifting. Moreover, a well informed source confirmed that she directly called governor Punjab Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman to be a Chief Guest who followed the directives despite that it was against the decorum. Besides this, she used PMYP many times for her political interests, sources said.

Chaudhry Sohaib Saeed and Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry: In 2019, PTI Barrister Sultan defeated his political archrival Chaudhry Sohaib Saeed in the by-election of Mirpur LA-III seat of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly by bagging 17,673 votes.