CHITRAL: A local court on Thursday stayed the proposed appointments to the local government and rural development department.

Civil judge Fazle Wadood issued the stay order after initial hearing into a joint petition of Jamaat-i-Islami district chief Maghfirat Shah and district council members-elect Mohammad Hussain and Sher Mohammad.

Lately, the LGRD department had issued letters of appointment to 96 people as village council naib qasids.

Zafar Hayat, lawyer for the petitioners, told the court that the LGRD department had invited applications for appointment to 96 naib qasid posts last month for which hundreds of people applied.

He claimed though applicants were later called for interview, the department secretly issued letters of appointment to its blue-eyed people.

The lawyer said under the circumstances, the interview process had turned out to be an eyewash and wasted the time and money of applicants belonging to different parts of the district.

The court later issued a stay order against the proposed appointments to the village council naib qasid posts.

It also directed the LGRD department assistant director to explain position on the matter in writing by August 16 and adjourned hearing for August 17.

Also in the day, the civil court of Drosh area sent eight proclaimed offenders to the Chitral district jail.

Sub-divisional police officer of Drosh Zafar Ahmad told Dawn that Dayem Khan, Jalat Khan, Roz Mohammad, Qayyum Khan, Fazal, Mohammad Jan, Dost Mohammad and Mohammad Khan were arrested in Arandu area on return from Afghanistan.

He said the arrested men had fled to Afghanistan after committing crime.

“We’d closely monitored the movement of the proclaimed offenders and held them during a nighttime raid,” he said.

The official said the police had zero tolerance towards proclaimed offenders in Arnadu and Damil areas in line with the directions of district police officer Abbas Majid Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2015

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