Former bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad on Friday took the oath as the caretaker federal minister. The stately ceremony unfolded within the grand walls of Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad, where President Dr Arif Alvi presided over the oath-taking. Mr Fawad had traversed the corridors of power as the principal secretary at the highest echelons of government, serving two prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. His administrative prowess was not limited to the federal level as he had also remained the principal secretary to former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif. It merits mention here that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had levelled allegations against him, alleging that he possessed illegal assets worth billions of rupees. In July 2018, the NAB took him into custody on charges of corruption related to the Ashiana-e-Iqbal project and three other crucial initiatives. In 2020, an accountability court in Lahore delivered a verdict that resonated with resounding vindication. Fawad, along with his wife, brother, and Dr. Anjum Hassan, stood acquitted as the NAB’s case crumbled due to a lack of concrete evidence.