PESHAWAR, April 28: The NWFP Directorate of Technical Education and Manpower Training has made appointments in subordinate colleges and institutes in violation of the rule of merit and the policy on zonal allocation of seats , sources alleged here on Wednesday.

The directorate had placed an advertisement in the local newspapers in October 2003, inviting applications for appointment of junior staff without either mentioning the last date for submission of applications or the number of vacancies to be filled.

The sources said that though the authorities had conducted test and interview to fill the posts, instead of making fresh recruitment they promoted and appointed regular staff members against the contract posts.

The policy on zonal allocation of seats for appointments to government departments was also violated in the process as the authorities ignored to distribute the seats accordingly, the sources said.

According to the zonal policy, all vacancies falling between BPS-5 and BPS-16 "shall be distributed among all the five zones earmarked for the purpose". The five zones comprise the settled districts of the province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

It says in the case of initial recruitment, "there shall be a block of 24 vacancies. Six such vacancies shall form the merit quota and the remaining 18 shall be reserved for bona fide residents of the five zones."

This policy was also made part of the 1973 Constitution in order to allay any sense of deprivation among the people of the backward areas of the province and give them due representation in the appointments to provincial government departments.

The sources claimed that the fresh appointments in the Directorate were made purely on the basis of favouritism as quite a few of the appointees happened to be the close relatives of some officials working in the directorate.

Instead of following merit or the policy on zonal allocation, the authorities adopted a self-devised plan and dropped qualified candidates while those having poor academic record were appointed or promoted to the vacant posts, the sources said.

Even some candidates who had not appeared in the test and interview held in the Government College of Technology, Peshawar, in the last week of December 2003 were selected for appointment against the posts, the sources alleged.

They further alleged that the appointment orders were signed by a subordinate official instead of a competent authority in the directorate.

However, Superintendent Mohammad Tayyeb denied that any irregularities had been committed in the appointments. He said a proper procedure was followed and the appointments were made according to the government policy.

Regarding the zonal policy, he said as the vacancies were of contract nature the policy was not followed. These contracts would be renewed after three years if the performance of the employees was found satisfactory, he added.

However, when asked whether the regular staff members who were appointed against the contract posts would be considered on contract, he said they were regular employees and would be considered as such.