Election Commission of Pakistan ordered on Tuesday that Ahad Cheema should be removed from the post of advisor in the federal cabinet.

The ECP ordered the cabinet division to immediately remove Cheema from office.

The decision was issued by a five-member bench of the ECP headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja. ECP members Nisar Ahmed Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, Babar Hassan Bharwana and Justice (r) Ikram Ullah Khan were also part of the bench.

The Commission said that Cheema had served in the previous cabinet under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and could thus influence elections.

Ahad Cheema was serving as the advisor to the caretaker prime minister on establishment division effectively putting him in charge of all matters related to the civil service.

Cheema served as a bureaucrat in Punjab during Shehbaz Sharif’s rule as chief minsiter of Punjab. He had also been accused of corruption in two separate cases by the National Accountability Bureau – Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme and assets beyond means.

After facing arrests in 2018 and being subsequently releases, he was acquitted from the cases in 2023.

The ECP will also take up petitions against another member of the cabinet, Fawad Hassan Fawad, on December 21. A petition has also been filed in the ECP against another cabinet member, Tauqeer Shah.