PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau has initiated an inquiry against Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s younger brother and an officer of the provincial government, Ziaur Rehman, regarding his alleged illegal absorption in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Management Service (PMS) over a decade ago.

Official sources told Dawn that it surfaced during an ongoing inquiry by the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against Mr Zia that he was absorbed in the PMS against the prescribed rules in 2007 when the province had the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government with JUI-F leader Akram Khan Durrani being the chief minister.

The NAB KP is already looking into different issues related to Mr Zia, including his assets.

The JUI-F chief’s brother is an officer of the KP Provincial Management Service in BPS-19 and has also served as the commissioner at the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees.

Officials claim Zia became part of PMS during MMA govt against rules

A relevant official said under the rules, any appointment to the PMS could be done only after qualifying the provincial competitive examination.

He said NAB chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal had also given approval to the inquiry into the alleged illegality in his PMS absorption.

On Aug 20 last year, NAB deputy director Nasiruddin Abbas issued a call-up notice to him under Section 19 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999. Mr Zia was asked to appear before an investigation team on Aug 25.

The subject of the notice stated that the inquiry was against officers/officials of Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and others regarding corruption and corrupt practices concerning funds under various heads, procurement of machinery/ equipment etc and accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income by Mr Zia.

Mr Zia was also at the centre of a controversy last year when the Sindh government appointed him the deputy commissioner of a district in Karachi on deputation.

In 2007, the then KP governor, retired Lt-General Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, had approved a summary forwarded to him by the then chief minister, Akram Khan Durrani, for the inclusion of Mr Zia in the provincial civil service as a section officer under Section 23 of the KP Civil Servant Act, 1973.

The absorption of Mr Zia, a former employee of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, had raised eyebrows as the inclusion of a federal government employee to the provincial civil service was not possible after the introduction of the Provincial Management Service Rules, 2007, which had abolished the then secretariat and executive groups of the provincial civil service.

An official told Dawn that the relevant department had opposed Mr Zia’s absorption in the provincial civil service on the ground that BPS-17 vacancies in the newly-framed Provincial Management Service Rules, 2007, were filled through fresh recruitment by the Provincial Public Service Commission, promotions, and appointment of employees with post-graduation and the minimum five-year service.

The department had insisted that the newly-framed services rules didn’t offer the absorption of any federal government employee in the provincial civil service.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2020