PESHAWAR, Oct 25: The provincial government is in a fix over the question of implementing its move of lifting the ban on fresh recruitments to NWFP public sector departments, official sources said.

Trying to keep its promises made during elections the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal led NWFP government, sources said, had recently announced lifting of an old ban on fresh recruitments to government departments - a move which elicited apprehensions from the World Bank.

An official source said: “The World Bank has opposed the lifting of the ban saying that increasing the staff would certainly have an impact on the budget of the provincial government.”

Official documents revealed that the World Bank recently recommended to the provincial government that there should be no increase in the number of sanctioned posts and that the ban should continue.

The government, said an official source, intended to recruit some 9,000 employees, including around 8,300 to the education sector.

Emphasis on inducting thousands of PTC teachers, said the source, was necessitated to improve the teacher-student ratio, which stands around 1:40.

Though the lending institute recognized the need for appointing more staff in the education sector, it wanted the provincial government to execute its intended move in a way that it should not lead to increase its existing number of sanctioned posts - standing close to 272,000, including a large number at the disposal of the district governments.

Official sources said that the provincial government was advised that if it wanted to recruit new staff to the education sector to overcome the existing shortage, an equal number of sanctioned posts from other sectors should be abolished to keep the number of posts at the existing level.