PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision to regularise about 5,000 project staff has raised questions over the rationale of regularising such a huge number of employees without involving the Public Service Commission, according to sources.
They said that not only KP Public Service Commission, the statutory body to recruit candidates for government jobs, was not in any way involved in the process as it was done on the whims of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Sources said that the provincial cabinet in its most recent meeting approved regularisation of about 5,000 contract employees while establishment department also prepared a draft law to give legal cover to the process. “The draft law is likely to be tabled in the next session of the provincial assembly,” they added.
The breakdown of the projects workers, to be regularised, shows that about 4,800 contract employees working at 58 schemes of 20 departments would be benefitted from the government’s largesse.
Official fears litigations after giving permanent jobs to 5,000 workers without involving PSC
Of them, 12 employees are in BPS-19; 58 in BPS-18; 218 in BPS-17; 389 in BPS-16; 72 in BPS-14; 880 in BPS-12; 1,125 in BPS-11; 70 in BPS-9; 16 in BPS-8; 269 in BPS-7 and 10 in BPS-6.
Sources told Dawn that provincial establishment department had opposed the regularisation; however, chief minister overruled it objection. They said that most of the high-ups, both in bureaucracy as well as political hierarchy, gave jobs to their near and dear ones in government projects. “Merit is usually not strictly followed in such appointments as initially it is not considered permanent government service,” they added.
Sources said that provincial assembly empowered the KP Public Service Commission under Section 7 of the Public Service Commission Ordinance, 1978 to make appointment against government jobs.
A senior official said that the assembly time and again encroached upon the mandate of the commission for political considerations. “The commission in its annual report has also expressed reservations over such hiring practices, saying these are affecting the quality of service and competency of the candidates,” he added.
The official said that the jobs filled by the commission also followed regional quota given to the different parts of the province that also took care of regional disparities. However, the project appointments did not take such niceties seriously and most of the appointments had been made from central parts of the province, which were the most developed ones while the backward areas were ignored, he added.
Sources said provincial government’s project policy 2009 was also against the regularisation of such employees. Para 10 (VI) of the project policy states: “In case the project posts are converted into regular budget post shall be filled through Public Service Commission or departmental selection committee”. It adds that the former project employees shall have no right of adjustment against the regular posts.
“What will be the status of the Public Service Commission if the provincial government is regularising the contract and project employees,” questioned an official of the law department.
He said that under the cabinet decision, only the employees of permanent projects would be regularised that would create a sense of deprivation among thousands of people working in other projects.
The official said that such employees could move court for their regularisation on the same pattern so the government departments would face a lot of litigations.
“I was appointed as planning officer in the early 1990s through Public Service Commission in BPS-17, however, despite serving for 25 years I am still working in the same grade,” a senior planner told Dawn.
Expressing his concerns, he said that the project employees, who had worked for five or six years, would become his bosses after their regularisation in BPS-18 and BPS-19.
Provincial Minister for Information Shah Farman was not available for comments.
Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2018
