ISLAMABAD, March 10: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday issued stay order against appointment on 27 fresh posts in the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) which the agency had advertised a couple of weeks back.

While accepting for hearing a petition alleging massive political recruitments in the state-run news agency during the last days of the previous government, Justice Dr Sajid Qureshi directed the APP management to submit within three weeks parawise comments on the issue.

The court also sought report from the management of the agency on inductions against 64 posts of sub-editors and reporters in September last year.

Twenty-one contractual employees (journalists) of APP have challenged the agency’s move of advertising 27 fresh posts of sub-editors and reporters on February 28 - just ten days after the general elections and with a caretaker setup in control of the information ministry.

Keeping in view the qualifications of some of those appointed in September, the petitioners have alleged that a large number of political inductions had been made in the organisation. Counsel for the petitioners, Shah Khawar Advocate, informed the court that the APP rules of appointment had already been violated in the recent appointments and that the advertisement of the new posts was just another such step.

He said a master’s degree in mass communication/journalism or social sciences with at least five years’ work experience in print or electronic media was a prerequisite for appointment against the posts filled in September.

But the petitioners have proofs that some candidates having even bachelor’s degrees had been appointed. Ironically, while the management chose to select some candidates with BA qualifications or those introduced to the news agency under the National Internship Programme, it rejected many journalists with years of working experiences and postgraduate qualifications in the relevant subject who had appeared in the written test, he added.

The counsel also shared with the court the copy of a letter issued by the APP management on March 8, confirming that at least 11 candidates recruited in September did not possess the required postgraduate qualifications let alone any working experience.

The counsel contended that the APP management had issued the letter after knowing that the petitioners had moved the court.

He said even now the management had no intention of removing those who did not met the criteria and had rather informed them that they would be considered on probation and would not be regularised till completion of their master’s.

He said if such practice was allowed then candidates with FA and even matric qualifications should also be appointed in the agency and allowed to work on probation till they completed their master’s and then regularised.

He said his clients had been working in APP since 2005 on contractual basis as reporters and sub-editors and their contracts had been renewed following their satisfactory performance but they were not regularised. He said all the petitioners possessed postgraduate qualifications and had been inducted through proper tests. Now it was the right of these contractual employees to be regularised, he added.