In a damning indictment of the functioning of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Workers Welfare Board (WWB), the Supreme Court has recently directed the provincial government to constitute a committee headed by its chief secretary for examining multiple issues, including fixing responsibility for cronyism and wastage of funds due to illegal appointments in the schools project of the board.

Deciding a civil appeal filed by the WWB’s chairman against a judgment of Peshawar High Court whereby services of several contractual employees working in some technical institutes of the board were regularised, a bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmad, took suo motu notice of the state of affairs in the board specially the schools set up by it.

The bench, whose other two members were Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, had set aside the judgment of the high court on July 16. In its 19- page detailed judgment authored by Justcie Ijazul Ahsan, the bench issued several directives to the provincial government.

The court ordered that the KP government should constitute a committee headed by the chief secretary and consisting of independent professionals possessing the higher degree of integrity from the fields of education, administration, finance, employment laws, etc.

“Such a committee shall in the first instance examine the laws and rules governing the setting up, operation and functioning of the schools system set up by the Board,” the court directed, adding that the Board shall provide the committee all data, information, financial documents, employment documentations, etc related to terms and conditions of employment of the entire staff working in these schools.

“The committee shall also have the power to constitute sub-committees consisting of two or more members who will examine and streamline the entire process of employing persons in the project of the Board especially its schools project. It will examine and suggest changes in the system of appointments which would be made by selection boards constituted on the basis of recommendations to be made by this committee.”

The bench directed: “The committee shall also get conducted an independent audit of the Board with special reference to schools project for the past seven years in order to fix responsibility for cronyism, favoritism, unnecessary litigation and leakage and wastage of funds with relation to illegal appointments made at various stages.”

“The Committee shall also prepare a comprehensive report regarding other aspects of the working of the Board and its schools project within a period of three months and submit such report not only to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but also to this Court for our perusal in Chambers,” the bench ordered, adding the recommendations of the committee should also include measures to create a workable balance between the powers of the Board, the chairman and secretary and suggest inbuilt counterchecks in exercise of powers at any stage.

Another important direction given by the apex court is that the Committee should also coordinate with the National accountability Bureau and Anti-Corruption Establishment and should point out the individuals who had been found by it to be involved in financial mismanagement, corruption and misuse of authority for initiation of proceedings against them.

“The Committee shall also look into working of the Board, its management committee, chairman as well as secretaries of the Board for the past seven years and recommend appropriate action where any violations of the rules, regulations and laws, etc have been found,” the bench ordered.

The bench observed: “While hearing these and a large number of other matters, we were shocked and appalled at the way Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Workers Welfare Board has been operating for the past many years. It presents a pathetic picture of total and complete disregard, violation and disrespect for the law, rules and regulations.”

“Rules and Regulations have either been bent, amended, bypassed or ignored from time to time; notifications have been issued with impunity for questionable reasons and official documents have been generated to facilitate and cover up corruption, cronyism, favoritism and personal or political favours at the expense of public exchequer,” the bench ruled, adding huge amounts of funds had been doled out to favourites with connections who were given appointments without due process.

The bench was of the opinion that a large number of appointments were indiscriminately made without regard to or setting parameters, criteria, benchmarks, minimum qualifications and other material factors.

The bench in its findings also mentioned several glaring flaws and irregularities in the process of making appointments to different posts by the Board.

“A large number of appointments were made by persons who did not have the power nor were competent to make such appointments. In a number of cases there was no independent, impartial and duly approved Selection Board authorised by the competent authorities on the basis of rules or regulations to evaluate the academic credentials, competence, merit and suitability of applicants/candidates and make recommendations for appointments based upon merit,” the court pointed out.

The bench observed that currently it appeared that in the so-called 48 schools of the Board only 13,000 students were enrolled while the number of teachers had increased to over 5,000 which had resulted in an unheard of student-teacher ratio of one teacher for 2.6 students.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2020