PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has ordered the elementary and secondary education secretary to act against the relevant officers over the violation of 25 per cent quota reserved for the children of retired Class-IV employees in the appointments made by the department from 2016 to 2020.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Syed M Attique Shah ordered the sharing of the findings of a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) inquiry into illegal appointments to the department against 25 per cent quota with the education secretary for legal action against the delinquent officers.

It also asked the secretary to inform the high court through the additional registrar (judicial) about the action taken.

The bench ordered the department to consider petitioner Abdul Jalal for recruitment against one of the Class-IV posts reserved for retired employees’ children.

Observes illegal appointments detected in NAB probe

It observed that recruitment of persons made on ground of providing land for the construction of school was illegal in light of the judgments of superior courts.

The petitioner had challenged the violation of the policy of 25 per cent quota for the filling of vacant seats for the children of retired employees in the department.

During the pendency of the petition, the court had ordered the NAB to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

The NAB inquiry also revealed violation of the policy by the education department.

Advocate Syed Azizuddin Kakakhel appeared for the petitioner and contended that the petitioner’s father, Roze Amin, was a Class-IV employee at Government Primary School Shareefabad, Mardan and retired from there in 2016.

He said his client had applied for Class-IV post under 25 per cent quota of retired employees’ children, but he had been denied that right.

The counsel said the relevant officers had not been appointing children of retired employees on the said vacant seats and instead recruiting other persons, including those who donated land for construction for schools.

He contended that the said practice was in violation of different judgments of the superior courts.

The lawyer requested the bench to declare illegal the non-appointment of the petitioner against 25 per cent quota for children of retired employees.

The bench observed that the NAB inquiry revealed that the relevant departmental selection committees in the offices of the district education officers (male) and (female) had violated the policy from 2016 to 2020, and 113 posts reserved for the children of retired employees were filled illegally by those, who donated land for schools.

It added that the delinquent officers responsible for the violation of 25 per cent job quota were identified in the inquiry.

The inquiry observed that the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments, had ordered the provincial government to strictly abide by the policy devised regarding the purchase of land for official use in accordance with the prescribed procedure as circulated in 2009 so that quota reserved for the retired employees’ children should be observed in accordance with the prescribed rules and regulations.

The court observed that the department had adopted the stand that the provincial government had not been purchasing land for establishment of schools during the period and therefore, the appointments were made on the basis of land donations. The department had also said the said appointees fulfilled the requisite qualification for selection.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2021