March 21, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

RAWALPINDI, March 20: Joint disciplinary proceedings are being carried out against nine employees of the education department of Rawalpindi under Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act (PEEDAA) 2006 for their alleged corruption and misconduct while inducting school educators in the district in 2006, Dawn has learnt.

An official privy to the proceedings told this reporter that the nine employees were facing hearings in the office of Lal Mohammad Chohan, member (Inquiries) Service and General Administration Department, Lahore, after an inquiry report compiled by Director Public Instructions Elementary Education Punjab Mohammad Ashraf Naz Gondal found them guilty of tampering/amending the merit lists of educators recruited in 2006.

The inquiry officer will hold next hearing on March 22 as on the last two occasions some accused officials had deposed their statements in their defence. If the nine officials are found guilty, they can face many departmental actions including removal from service.

According to the inquiry report submitted with Punjab Education Secretariat in February by the director public instructions (documents available with Dawn), Aslam Javaid, former executive district officer (EDO) education; Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, EDO information technology; Raja Gulzar Ahmed, district officer (DO) elementary education male (EE-M); Malik Bashir Ahmed, DO secondary education (SE); Falk Naz, DO elementary education female (EE-F); Fida Hussain Shah, senior clerk; Imyad Hussain Shah, junior clerk; Aurangzeb Satti, computer operator and Sajjad Abbasi, assistant education officer (AEO) were found guilty of committing serious irregularities during recruitment of educators.

The report said Aslam Javaid, now an associate professor of Islamiat in a boys college, failed to implement the recruitment policy, received applications after due date, accepted some required documents after the prescribed period, prepared a tentative merit list without consulting the district recruitment committee and approved flawed merit lists without corrections.

Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui is accused of carrying out various tasks related to recruitments without the knowledge or permission of the district coordination officer (DCO). He was also accused of giving wrong findings when he was asked by the district nazim to conduct an inquiry into the errors committed in the appointments.

Raja Gulzar is said to be involved in appointing a female educator in boys school and giving extra marks to certain applicants in violation of the recruitment rules.

Falk Naz along with the two clerks has been found guilty of accepting fake experience certificates and manipulating merit lists to accommodate her favourite applicants. Some 790 irregularities were found in the lists prepared by the clerks and approved by the DO EE-F.

The source said it was during the process of recruitments of the educators that some applicants approached a Punjab minister for his favour who said only merited selections would be made. Later these applicants informed the minister that they had obtained jobs after greasing the palms of some education officials. As a result an official inquiry was ordered after the minister complained to the district nazim.