June 27, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1429

MUZAFFARABAD, June 26: A wrangle between the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government and the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority over the issue of appointments in reconstruction related projects may take a turn for the worse as the AJK government has bluntly refused to participate in the selection process the Erra plans to conduct on its own in the federal capital, it has been learnt.

“We have plainly told the Erra that we will not send our representatives (for a panel of interviewers constituted by the Erra) for recruitment against the posts created in the project management units (PMUs) of three city development projects in Azad Kashmir,” a senior government official confided to Dawn here on Thursday.

“Recruitment of staff and execution of projects fall in our domain and have nothing to do with Erra and unless we are given the lead in implementation of these projects, targets cannot be achieved,” added the official.

Quoting some clauses from the Erra Ordinance 2007, he said the law governing the authority did not assign any functions to it regarding physical execution of projects, programmes or schemes.

Instead, he said, it had to approve projects, programmes and schemes identified, prepared and submitted by respective governments of the affected area and take steps for their monitoring and evaluation.

Early this month the Erra had directly advertised around 47 vacant posts in the Muzaffarabad City Development Project (MCDP) for recruitment by itself, stirring up umbrage in the official circles here.

Interestingly, the initial advertisement for appointments against these positions was issued by the AJK government in August last year in complete consultation and coordination with Erra’s Special Project Cell (SPC) and in response hundreds of candidates had submitted their applications.

A five-member selection committee, headed by the AJK chief secretary, had conducted interviews of the short-listed candidates for senior positions in November last year. Five persons were appointed by the AJK government in January in the project management unit (PMU) of MCDP in the light of the recommendations of the selection committee.

Applicants for the junior posts were however only short- listed for test/interviews at an appropriate time. Erra had not only sought fresh applications against all these posts but had also re-advertised the positions already filled in by the AJK government.

According to sources, there were several discrepancies in the salary packages worked out by Erra officials for the city development projects of Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot “which reflected the haphazardness on the part of authority.”

The sources said not only the MCDP, but Erra had also sought applications against the posts in Bagh City Development Project (BCDP) and Rawalakot City Development Project (RCDP) for appointments by itself.

The issue of recruitment had angered the AJK government which had refused to send its officials in the selection process Erra had announced to conduct on its own in Islamabad, sources said.

Sources pointed out that since acquisition of land and removal of other irritants was a must to launch these projects, it could hardly be accomplished while keeping the main stakeholders - the government and people of AJK - at bay.

According to sources, at least three members of the AJK cabinet had also separately conveyed their concern to the Erra high ups in this regard, warning that the authority’s handling of certain affairs could jack up public outcry against it.

However, when contacted by this correspondent, Erra’s programme manager (urban development) Ejaz Bajwa maintained that the posts had been re-advertised “only to regularise the persons appointed by the AJK government.”

He claimed that Erra had only asked the AJK government “to initiate and not conduct the recruitments.”

However, when questioned that why didn’t the Erra raise any objections when the AJK government had advertised these posts in August last, conducted interviews after three months and issued appointment notification in January this year, he could not give any answer.

Sources pointed out that Erra’s SPC had a defined role in the PC-1 of MCDP but the urban development wing figured nowhere in it. The controversial advertisements seeking fresh applications for MCDP posts were issued by Mr Bajwa on behalf of urban development wing.