June 11, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 06, 1429

LAHORE, June 10: The caretaker government of Justice Ejaz Nisar (retired) had allegedly recruited nearly 6,300 people in Punjab, and they all are likely to be sacked by the present setup.

Official sources told Dawn on Tuesday that these people were recruited during the two and-a-half months’ tenure of the caretaker government whose mandate was just to supervise free and fair elections.

“The initial view is that these recruitments are illegal as the caretaker government can’t employ anyone,” sources said, adding that the recruitments were made from BS-1 to 20 on regular as well as a contract basis “to benefit a political party -- the PML-Q”.

A high-level committee was checking each and every case in detail under the provincial additional chief secretary, they said.

It would find illegalities in all the appointments to fulfill a legal formality. “Otherwise, it is the considered opinion that they all are illegal appointees who must be fired,” a senior official said.

The decision has come when the government machinery is awaiting a green signal from the chief minister to sack all those recruited without fulfilling legal requirements by the Pervaiz Elahi government.

Officials said the lists of all those employed on the directives of the former chief minister in relaxation of rules and regulations, or by the recruitment committees without fulfilling the legal requirements, had already been made.

But now the cases of those recruited by the caretaker government would be decided first, they said.