FAISALABAD: The Ministry of Textile Industry has declared as illegal 45 appointments made by National Textile University Rector Dr Arshad Ali and also formed a committee to probe the wrongdoing.

The rector, however, says the ministry has nothing to do with the NTU affairs which is an autonomous body having its “all powerful” board of governors.

“The issue of the ministry’s letters will be taken up in a meeting of the BoG scheduled to be held in the last week of this month,” he said.

In a letter titled “Illegal appointments of 45 officers/staff on a contract basis in National Textile University Faisalabad,” the ministry said the recruitments made by the rector are in violation of instructions and guidelines of the Establishment Division circulated by this ministry from time to time.

Rector says ministry has nothing to do with varsity affairs

The ministry further told the rector: “You are well aware that NTU is already faced with acute financial crunch and on management demand the ministry had approached various forums to arrange requisite funds. At this critical juncture, appointment of 21 persons at officer positions and 24 persons as their supporting (staff) involving pay and privilege of millions of rupees per month in violation of instructions of the establishment division and guidelines of ESTACODE duly communicated to NTU, need to be justified by you under the ambit of prescribed procedure and law.”

It has categorically been mentioned in the Establishment division’s office memorandum (OM) of (F.53/1/2008-SP dated Oct 22, 2014 and Jan 16, 2015) that all recruitment to the posts in BPS-16 and above shall continue to be made through the Federal Public Service Commission and all other initial appointments shall be made in according with the prescribed procedure laid down in the Establishment Division’s OM, letter reads.

It mentioned that guidelines/instructions are equally applicable and are binding on all federal government ministries/divisions/departments/organizations/ subordinate offices/autonomous bodies/semi autonomous bodies/corporations/companies and authorities. Furthermore, the establishment division’s guidelines are also applicable to recruitment of employees on a contract basis. In addition, there are also clear cut guidelines contained in the ESTACODE 2011 (pages 370-372) regarding appointment of employees on contract basis.

“It is brought to your notice that under sub-para (v) of para 29A of Rules of Business 1973, the National Textile University falls under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textile. Therefore, the aforesaid instructions of establishment division being binding were to be followed by NTU in letter and spirit.”

The ministry directed Dr Arshad Ali to explain his position in writing within three days stating that why and how he violated clear-cut instructions of the establishment division and as to why proceedings should not be initiated against you (Rector) at the relevant forum under prescribed law for making illegal appointments on contract basis in violation of the procedure during the year 2015 when the instructions of the establishment division were duly conveyed to you timely.

Finding no reply from the rector, another letter--1(1) SJS (PC)/TID/2016—was sent to the rector and he was informed that a committee has been constituted to scrutinize the record and to investigate the appointment of 45 persons in the university in 2015.

Letter reads, “It has been decided by the committee that the original record pertaining to the appointments of 45 persons should be presented to the committee in person by the registrar of the university.”

Rector has also been directed to provide copies of relevant approved rules and regulations under which the recruitment process was carried out.

“Copies of the authority letters regarding creating of these posts, approval of competent authority/forum to create these posts should also be provided,” the letter mentioned.

Senior joint secretary of the ministry of Textile Hamid Hameed Waris has been appointed the inquiry officer who told Dawn that ministry was actively working on the issue and would bring it to logical end.

He said for the time being proceedings on the inquiry were slow as the ministry would seek the legal opinion of the law department on some issues pertaining to the university.

The university rector assumed charge of his office on April 27 last year and recruited some persons as deputy registrars, consultants, chief security officer, assistant professor, lecturers, security guards, CCTV camera operators, office assistants, account assistant and supervisor security.

Reacting to the appointments, the Academic Staff Association of the university demanded the BoG to form a committee to probe the recruitment which had been made without advertising vacancies in the media and alleged financial embezzlement at the university.

The rector said he had done nothing wrong in the appointments as he used the powers according to the university act. He said efforts were on to uplift the university which had been facing problems in the past.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016