MUZAFFARABAD, May 19: An accountability court on Tuesday nullified the appointment of a junior clerk and fined a former education department official Rs50,000 for misusing his authority.

Khwaja Khairullah Shakir was accused by the Ehtesab Bureau of appointing Asif Qureshi as junior clerk without advertising the post and conducting a test or interview in line with rules.

The accountability court-I found Mr Shakir guilty of misuse of authority and fined him Rs50,000. The judge, however, said that since the accused was an aged person it would be inappropriate to award him imprisonment. He cancelled Mr Qureshi's appointment.

POPULATION WELFARE: The federal government has endorsed the proposal of the AJK government for transferring the population welfare department to AJK. Secretary of the AJK population welfare department, Dr Bashir ur Rehman Kanth told Dawn that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali had approved the proposal by the AJK PM Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan and advised the Federal Ministry of Population Welfare to take further action for finalising the modalities of the transfer.

The population welfare programme was initiated in AJK in 1995 and since then it was being run under a PC-I with financial and administrative assistance of the relevant federal ministry and some international donor agencies. The department had around 350 employees on contract basis whereas the officers were posted in it on deputation from the AJK health department.

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