Minster’s spouse made Kashmir PSC member

by  Tariq Naqash  in Dawn, March 6

MUZAFFARABAD, March 5: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has appointed a minister’s spouse as a member of the AJK Public Service Commission (PSC) in a decision that has drawn flaks from a main opposition party and civil society groups.

Apart from Ms Arifa Rabbani, wife of Akhtar Rabbani Khan, minister for agriculture, Mohammad Saeed Mughal, a retired secretary to the government, has also been appointed as PSC member and both would be administered oath by PSC chairman Syed Mumtaz Hussain Naqvi here on Wednesday.

Earlier in November, the government had appointed five PSC members, including the chairman, on the recommendations of one or the other ruling party leader.

According to the 1986 Act, the PSC comprises a chairman and six members.

However, through an amended ordinance in July last year, three “educationist members” were also added to the PSC, raising its strength to 10.

Of the three “educationist members” one was appointed in November whereas two more are yet to be appointed.

Ms Rabbani and Mr Mughal were inducted as regular members.

Sources told Dawn that the former chief secretary had withheld the summary about the appointment of Ms Rabbani, for he believed that she was unsuitable for this position which involved selection of the best of the best candidates for different government jobs.

However, the chief secretary too had to give in to the intense pressure by the prime minister who wanted to please the minister through the adjustment of his spouse and thus “refrain him from switching loyalties.”

Civil society groups were aghast at the move, regretting that like many other institutions the government had not spared the PSC from induction of the “kith and kin” of public office holders, notwithstanding their “undistinguished academic backgrounds and careers.”

“There are so many ways to oblige political workers and their families but an institution like PSC should have been spared from such an affront,” remarked Ayesha Siddique, a civil society activist.

Adil Hameed, an unemployed postgraduate, remarked that the deserving youths without any political connections were losing hopes of getting jobs on merit through competitive examination following inductions of such members in the PSC.

He recalled that the PPAJK government’s practice of inducting its favourites in PSC was reminiscent of what was firstly done by Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan led government to this institution and later imitated by his successors between 2006 and 2011.

However, main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz announced that it would soon challenge the constitution of PSC in the High Court.

“They have made it Peoples Party Service Commission and if we allow its existence in the present form it would be criminal negligence on our part. That’s why we have decided to challenge it in the court,” PML-N AJK president Raja Farooq Haider told Dawn. http://dawn.com/2013/03/06/minsters-spouse-made-kashmir-psc-member-2/