PESHAWAR: Around 70 unemployed youngsters of Nowshera district have moved the Peshawar High Court against the recruitment of 111 people to different posts mostly Class-IV’s in village councils of the district alleging that the appointments were motivated by a political consideration.

A joint petition sought the court’s order for setting aside these appointments and directing the National Accountability Bureau to probe it.

The petitioners, including Hafeezur Rehman and others, claimed that most of them were graduates and postgraduates and were registered with the district employment exchange.

They insisted that the appointments in question were made in violation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil servants (Appointment, Posting and Transfers) Rules, 1989.

The petitioners said they all had valid unemployment cards.

70 jobless youth allege recruitment made on political grounds

They said Section 10 of APT Rules, 1989, set procedure for initial recruitment of all Class employees in KP government.

The petitioners said under those rules, the appointments to BPS 1-4 should be made on the recommendations of the departmental selection committee through the district employment exchange concerned.

They said the rules also declared that there shall be a quota of 10 percent for female, two percent for disabled persons and religious minorities, but all quotas were ignored in those appointments just in order to adjust their blue-eyed persons.

The petitioners claimed that in order to fill vacant posts in the village councils of Nowshera, a mechanism was adopted by the ruling party in connivance with the local administration of local government and rural development department that in every village council Class-IV seat will be filled on the recommendation of that said village council leaders of the PTI.

They alleged that the posts were later filled through those mechanisms violating the APT rules.

The petitioners also claimed that in some village councils, people were taken from another village council.

They added that advertisement was also not given for filling the said posts, which proved that the recruitment was not made in a transparent manner.

The petitioners referred to several high court judgments, which declared several of such appointments illegal.

They pointed out that in case of Mian Rashid Hussain Shaheed Memorial Hospital Pabbi, the court had declared illegal 123 recruitments for being made on political grounds.

The petitioners said they were ready to perform every kind of job in government sector, so they had registered themselves with the district employment exchange for the same reason.

Advocate Shah Faisal Ilyas also requested the court to club the petition with other such petitions against ‘illegal’ appointments to different departments.

He said some other petitions related to illegal appointments in Nowshera would be heard by a bench on Dec 10.

The respondents in the petition are Nowshera deputy commissioner in his capacity as the chairman of the recruitment and selection committee of village councils, Nowshera assistant director (local government), then Nowshera district nazim and 111 recruited persons.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2019