By: Kamran Ali Shah
PESHAWAR: Anomalies and favoritism surfaced in the recruitment process of different cadre jobs at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with the ruling party leadership allegedly behind the irregularities.
It came to the limelight after a report was submitted at the Peshawar High Court through a petition filed by Malik Farooq Advocate.
In the report, former assembly officials had written a letter to NAB in which evidence of nepotism and corruption of the Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, along with ministers, former speakers, members of the assembly and officers was highlighted.
At the behest of the former Speaker of the Provincial Assembly and the Secretary, several vacancies were advertised at the Assembly Secretariat, in which nepotism was practiced on a large scale, in which 6 high rank posts were illegally promoted, in which the post of Secretary was promoted from Grade 21 to Grade 22, similarly, Assistant Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Additional Secretary, Special Secretary and Senior Additional Secretary were given one-step promotions without any law.
The report revealed that people working in important positions were promoted several times without any law or regulation. The Secretary of the Assembly himself was promoted twice. The Assistant Secretary was promoted from Grade 17 to Grade 18 despite not having the basic qualifications required for this post.
After the illegal promotions, rules were not followed to fill the posts and vacant posts, and for this, instead of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission or any testing agency, the private testing agency Allied Testing Service was used, which is close to former Chief Minister Mahmood Khan’s brother, Ahmed Khan. Friend’s
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The list was provided to the relevant testing agency so that the approved candidates could be brought to the top 5 positions, and great efforts were made to bring the preferred candidates to the merit list by giving good marks in the interview, after which close people were recruited
Thus, the report also revealed that bribes ranging from Rs 2 to 18 million were received in sponsorships, foreign tours, Umrah packages, expensive mobile phones and other forms. The testing agency also paid bribes to get big projects from the government.
Former Speaker Mushtaq Ghani is also included in these anomalies, nepotism and recruitment, who is accused of accepting corruption and rewarding relatives and friends. Similarly, people from the constituency of former Chief Minister Mahmood Khan were also appointed to key positions.
Relations of former Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan and people from his constituency were recruited, MPA Nighat Yasmin Orakzai’s son, former minister Mohibullah’s son, similarly, Secretary Provincial Assembly Kifayatullah Afridi has also recruited 14 people, including his children and other family members, including son-in-law and nephew. The Secretary Provincial Assembly has appointed his lawyer, Ali Azeem Afridi, as Legal Advisor in Grade 19 without any procedure.
Special Secretaries, AD Finance and former DS have also recruited people of their choice, while the son of current MPA Abdul Salam Afridi has also been appointed AD Reporting, the nephew of former MPA and current minister Fazal Hakim and a relative of former provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi have also been recruited as an engineer.
This illegal practice has been continued in the province for the last many years, and rules are being violated on a large scale.
