MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 15: AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan has declined to promulgate an ordinance for the regularisation of ad hoc and temporary employees on the basis of ‘suitability’, Dawn has learnt.

He termed it against the spirit of the constitution.

The proposed ordinance — basically an amendment to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Civil Servants Act, 1976 — was approved by the cabinet as an ex-agenda item in its last meeting held on January 10 with Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan in the chair.

According to highly placed official sources, the ex-agenda item was introduced by Minister for Law, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Sardar Sayab Khalid, who maintained that many gazetted and non-gazetted employees had been serving in various government departments since long on temporary or ad hoc basis and “it deems inevitable, on humanitarian grounds, to regularise their services to secure their future.”

It was finally decided in the meeting that “all ad hoc and temporary employees whose continued length of service in the same scale is five years or more shall be regularised according to the district quota.”

Regarding the ad hoc and temporary employees in BPS-16 and above, the cabinet decided that their cases would be referred to the Public Service Commission (PSC) on the basis of “one post one person” to ascertain their suitability.

The PSC would not be bypassed but it would have to strictly meet the timeframe given by the government to regularise the employees in BPS-16 and above, the cabinet held.

Sources said Chief Secretary Mohammad Shehzad Arbab was not present in the cabinet meeting. However, he was spellbound when he came to know about this decision later.

The sources said that the law minister was in such a hurry that he got the draft of the ordinance prepared from the law department and sent it to the president for promulgation even before the issuance of the minutes of the cabinet meeting.

The president gave assent to the promulgation of the ordinance but as the summary to the law department was routed via chief secretary’s office, Mr Arbab inked his reservations on it and sent it back to the president for review, sources said.

“The president who had already been reluctant to give his assent to the ordinance seemed in agreement with the chief secretary and declined to promulgate the ordinance,” one source privy to the entire development told Dawn.

According to him, the president maintained although section 7 of the constitution made it mandatory for him to act upon the advice of the prime minister, but “that advice must be just and fair and should not be discriminatory in nature.”

It may be recalled that in 1992 the then Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan-led Muslim Conference government enacted a law to regularise dozens of ad-hoc appointees without referring them to the PSC.

The law, which was also said to be a brainchild of Mr Sardar Sayab Khalid, then minister for services and general administration (S&GAD), was struck down by the superior courts, much to the embarrassment of the government.

Sources said President Raja Zulqarnain Khan mentioned that failed move as well in his conversations with some ministers fearing that the fresh attempt could also be backfired because it denied the right to competition to the eligible candidates.

When this correspondent contacted president’s principal secretary Mrs Midhat Akram by telephone, she initially pretended to be unaware of the development. However, when pressed, she responded: “You already know everything. I won’t offer any comments.”