February 10, 2008	Sunday	Safar 02, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 9: The Sindh province has received 5th batch of 200 internees under the National Internship Programme (NIP) this week, while about 4,468 internees, who are already placed in various departments, have not been paid stipends in January, sources in Services and General Administration Department (S&GD) told Dawn on Saturday.

They said that the Auditor-General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR), Sindh, had refused to accept the salary bills of the internees sent by the concerned departments on the pretext that it had not received funds for the January salary from Islamabad.

The AGPR has informed the sponsoring departments that the Established Division in Islamabad has provided funds for salaries up to December 2007.

The NIP was launched in April last year and since then four batches comprising 4,468 internees were selected and referred for placement in the provincial department. The internees are said to be worried over the uncertain situation that grips the country ahead of general elections.

The response from the successful NIP candidates has been lukewarm as only half of the fourth batch internees reported for placement, while there are many qualified applicants still waiting for their turn. They complained that the Establishment Division has not been responding to their inquiries about the fate of their applications.

Those privy to the selection system of internees told Dawn that there were many loopholes in the system of selection of internees, which requires 16 years of education for eligibility for the scheme.

The Establishment Division selected a good number of candidates with only 14 years of education who were later terminated from the scheme. Recently 92 internees from Sukkur were terminated as they did not submit results of their Masters exams. In all 186 contracts have so far been terminated for not meeting the academic qualifications required under the scheme.

The local S&GD has informed Islamabad about the AGPR refusal to provide the stipend bills for January 2008. Though the latter had pledged funds for salaries but the caretaker setup has its problems in sanctioning funds.