October 11, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 28, 1428

PESHAWAR, Oct 10: As a special case, the NWFP governor has approved the absorption of Zia-ur-Rehman, a fedreal goverment employee and the younger brother of MMA General Secretary Maulana Fazalur Rehman, into the newly-framed Provincial Management Services, officials said on Wednesday.

Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai sanctioned a summary on Sept 10, which was forwarded by the outgoing Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, seeking inclusion of Mr Rehman into provincial civil service as Section Officer under Section 23 of the NWFP Civil Servant Act, 1973.

Absorption of Mr Rehman, a former employee of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), is probably the last and the biggest favour that the Durrani-led provincial government extended to him while overriding well-defined rules and regulations.

Mr Rehman has remained in the headlines for his controversial appointment in Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees (CAR) that led to litigations in 2005. Currently, he is serving as Additional Commissioner of CAR.

Officials of the NWFP Establishment Department explained that the inclusion of a federal government employee into provincial civil services was not possible following introduction of the Provincial Management Service Rules, 2007, which had abolished the existing secretariat and executive groups of provincial civil services.

The said department, said the officials, had also opposed the absorption of Mr Rehman, when directed to move a summary to the chief minister to this effect.

The department had clarified that vacancies in Basic Pay Scale 17 in newly framed Provincial Management Service Rules, 2007, were filled 50 per cent through fresh recruitment by Provincial Public Service Commission, 20 per cent each through promotions and the 10 per cent remaining posts were offered to in-service employees having done post-graduation and having minimum five years’ service.

Under this procedure, the newly-framed services rules did not offer absorption of any federal government employee, the department said.

It had indicated that a formal requisition for filling vacant positions had already been sent to the Provincial Public Service Commission for hiring, thus inclusion of Mr Rehman was not correct at this stage.

The department had further explained that even the old provincial civil services rules too had no provision for the absorption of employees of any other service cadres because the appointment against its posts was possible only through Provincial Public Service Commission or promotion by the Provincial Selection Board.

The governor, however, had included a couple of officials into provincial civil services in the past while exercising his powers of relaxing rules. However, these powers could only be exercised when terms of service of an expected inductee carries some complications that cannot be resolved.

The department clarified that in Mr Rehman’s case the governor could not relax the rules because he Mr Rehman had no problem in his existing service cadre and he also had prospects of promotion there.

Also, the NWFP Civil Servants Act, 1973, could not be applied to employees of the federal government or any other corporations because they were not provincial employees, the department further explained.

The Establishment Department had also opposed Mr Rehman’s absorption on the grounds that since the Section Officer’s post no more exists in the Provincial Management Service Rules, 2007, his application could not be entertained.

However, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, while overriding the Establishment Department’s views, forwarded the summary with a request of allowing the inclusion of Mr Rehman into the Provincial Management Services as a special case.

Earlier, a controversy was created when the provincial government appointed Mr Rehman as the project director of CAR on March, 28, 2005, in sheer violation of prescribed rules and regulations.