PESHAWAR, Sept 24: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government in the NWFP is following double standards for re-employment of government servants reaching the age of superannuation, it is learnt.

The chief minister, being the first appointing authority for re-employment of civil servants, has awarded extension in service to a couple of senior level officers by relaxing rules purely on his discretion.

But, at the same time, extension of some officers was turned down on the basis of certain rules and guidelines issued by the provincial government from time to time, sources in the Establishment Department confided to Dawn.

The extension case of R. D. Williams, a former Grade 20 officer of the Planning and Development Department (P&DD), is a classic example of double standards the government is maintaining in re-employment of the civil servants.

Mr Williams was retired on May 28 as chief of coordination P&DD and both his parent department and the chief secretary strongly recommended two years extension in his service, sources said.

The Regulation Wing of the Establishment Department, however, opposed such an extension, referring provincial policy guidelines and a provincial assembly resolution barring re-employment of retired officials, as ground for it.

According to sources, the provincial policy, notified in January 30, 2001, stated that service extension to an officer reaching the age of superannuation could not be granted except to the chairman or a member of the Public Service Commission, NWFP Services Tribunal, vice-chancellors of public universities, chairmen of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education and officials of autonomous bodies.

Likewise, Resolution No. 63 of the NWFP Assembly, adopted unanimously, declared that those serving in government departments after retirement should be fired with immediate effect.

The chief minister, said the sources, agreed to the observations pointed out by the Establishment Department and turned down the request of awarding extension to Mr Williams duly forwarded by the senior bureaucracy of the province.

The chief secretary, the sources said, upon receiving the file from the chief minister’s secretariat sent the summary again requesting for one-year extension to Mr Williams, but it was simultaneously turned down both by the chief minister and the governor of the NWFP, who is the second appointing authority for re-employment of officers above Grade 18.

When contacted, a senior officer at the Establishment Department explained that awarding extension in service is purely discretionary powers of the chief minister as being the competent authority he has the right to agree or disagree with any proposal concerning re-employment.

But, sources in the same department argued that this was not a discretionary matter, as Section 14 of the NWFP Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules of 1989 was very much clear about that.

They explained that as per the NWFP Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules of 1989 the government might award extension to an official, whose substitution was not available and who was indispensable for a government department.

But while Mr Williams could not benefit from this, the government, in contravention of the same rule, provided extensions to a couple of officers, including the incumbent secretary of works and services department, Riaz Khan, Dera Ismail Khan DCO Khudadad Khan and Director of Prosecution Abdul Qayyum Khattak.

Mr Khudadad Khan is the officer who has twice received extensions during the present government. He was retired last year, but given one-year extension till November 26, 2007. Even though, two months are remaining in his earlier extension, the officer was given another one -year extension on Saturday last that will be expired on November 26, 2008.