Controversial appointments in AJK

by Tariq Naqash  in Dawn, Sept 28

MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 27: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council (AJKC) secretariat has made two appointments in blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC).

FPSC nominees have finally made a presentation to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for justice, it has been learnt.

Interestingly, the controversial notification was issued by the AJKC on September 13, in spite of a resolution passed by four out of six elected AJKC members in favour of the FPSC nominees.

Copies of the resolution were sent to Prime Minister Ashraf, who happens to be the chairman AJKC, AJK President Sardar Yaqoob Khan, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo and AJKC’s secretary and joint secretary.

Documentary evidence available with Dawn revealed that in February 2011, FPSC issued a public notice, in accordance with the AJKC’s requisition of October 2010, seeking applications for three posts of section officers in the AJKC secretariat.

After the written examination on April 4-6, 2011, the candidature of those belonging to the attached departments was cancelled by the FPSC, allegedly after being misled by the AJKC secretariat, but the same was restored when the affected candidates made separate representations.

On July 18, 2011, the FPSC announced the names of six successful candidates, according to the order of merit, which included Shakil Ahmed, Sabir Hussain, Mukhtar Ahmed (Income Tax department), Munir Alam, Muhammad Najeeb (Council secretariat) and Fayazul Hassan Gilani (AG office).

On August 3, 2011, the FPSC recommended first three candidates as suitable for appointment against the three posts of Section Officers (SOs) and asked the AJKC secretariat to issue “offer of appointment” in their favour.

However, the candidates at serial number 4 and 5, filed a writ petition against the FPSC recommendations in the AJK High Court (HC) on September 13, 2011, which was dismissed on June 1, 2012.

In the meanwhile, they also filed a representation to the FPSC, which was also turned down.

Following the dismissal of the petition, the FPSC once again asked the AJKC secretariat to issue ‘appointment offer’ to the first three candidates, but to no avail.

In the meanwhile, Mr Alam and Mr Najeeb filed a review petition in the FPSC, which met a similar fate. On July 14, 2012, they filed an appeal against rejection of their review petition in the AJK HC, which heard preliminary arguments on its maintainability on August 8 but reserved the judgment.

Ironically, while the HC was yet to announce its decision, the AJKC secretariat clandestinely appointed/promoted Mr Alam and Mr Najeeb as SOs “consequent upon qualifying the FPSC examination and approval of the competent authority.”

The FPSC official, who spoke to Dawn on condition of anonymity, said rule 5 (iii) for the said examination categorically stated that the decision of the Commission as to the eligibility of a candidate for admission to the examination shall be final.

“The matter is in our knowledge and we will take it up in a befitting manner,” he said. This correspondent made several attempts on Thursday to reach federal secretary Kamran Qureshi but he was not available because of “bad health.”

However, AJKC’s joint secretary Jamil Ahmed, who assumed his office on September 14, a day after the issuance of controversial notification, maintained that due to a “clerical mistake” the qualifications of the candidates were wrongly mentioned in the (FPSC’s) public notice.

“We are studying this file again and we will ensure that injustice is not done to anyone,” he said

http://dawn.com/2012/09/28/controversial-appointments-in-ajk/