LAYYAH, Nov 30: Over 300 jobs in different pay scales in some district departments, which were advertised months ago, are now being filled when general elections are on the threshold and local authorities are allegedly trying to accommodate only those candidates who will vote to their kith and kin during the Jan 8 elections, sources told Dawn on Friday.

Though the district officials deny the accusations, some candidates have termed the process “bribe” to win more number of votes and called this whole episode “pre-polls rigging”. They have also appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to take notice of this illegal practice and take action against the local political as well as administrative authorities.

According to the sources, the recruitment process in education, literacy and health departments, which remained stalled for many months for the reasons best known to the authorities concerned, had resumed abruptly and District Nazim Malik Ghulam Haider Thind was trying to get more number of candidates adjusted from areas falling in constituency PP-266 from where his daughter, Razia Begum, was contesting the elections on PML-Q ticket.

The Thind family to which the district nazim belongs is already holding key political as well as administrative slots along with Jhakkar family and elites of both these families are trying to manipulate the future set up by misusing their current portfolios.

The sources said that jobs were being “sold” to those aspirants only who would give an undertaking that they and their families would vote to the district nazim’s ‘desired’ candidates.

The sources said that a meeting of health, education and literacy EDOs was held on Wednesday (Nov 28) in health EDO’s office, which was chaired by district nazim in which recruitments were finalised. The sources claimed that the employees of the EDO’s office were told to leave the office before their scheduled time to keep the secrecy.

The source added that a new dispatch register was prepared to accommodate the candidates recommended ‘afresh’ by the district nazim. The final list contained a large number of candidates who were residents of the areas falling in PP-266 constituency, the sources maintained.

The education department had advertised 136 vacancies for various slots in BS-4 to BS-16 and certain candidates had been short listed after interviews in August. Incidentally, a new dispatch register was prepared again on the directives of the district nazim to accommodate the candidates recommended by him.

The source said that 36 posts were being filled through special quota while the remaining 100 were distributed among the district nazim and his cronies.

The district nazim would be able to accommodate 30 candidates of his choice, PML-Q ticket holders Bhadar Ahmad Khan Sehar, Shahabuddin Khan Sehar and Malik Niaz Ahmad Jhakhar, 13 each, and Noor Nabi Jhakhar and Malik Allah Bux Samtiah, PML-Q candidates for PP-265 and PP-263, five each.

According to the sources, vacancies were being filled for the establishment of new schools in the literacy department in an identical fashion.

Health EDO Dr Fazal Karim said that all the recruitments were being made according to the policy laid down by the provincial government. He admitted that the district nazim had visited his office but denied that he had chaired any meeting. He also denied that employees of his office were told to leave the office before expected time.

Education EDO Hafiz Abdul Wahid Aulakh maintained that all recruitments would be made strictly on merit and according to the Punjab government’s policy.

Literacy EDO Muhammad Yousaf Khan (who is also brother of district nazim’s wife) was not available at his office for his comment. The district nazim was also not available for his comment. The nazim’s telephone operator, Ghulam Hussain, gave a cell phone number, which was also found switched off.

Mahar Fazal Husain Sumra, a former MPA and Razia’s rival candidate, urged the CEC to take action on this blatant violation of election laws. Iftikhar Babar Khan, a PPP candidate for PP-266, slated this trade of jobs in exchange of votes. He also appealed to the CEC to intervene and stop this politically motivated practice going on unchecked.