Technical education & training institutions employees move PHC

PESHAWAR: The employees of the technical education and vocational training institutions on Wednesday submitted an application in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) seeking action against alleged irregularities and misappropriation of funds in these institutions after public-private partnership was struck.

Dozens of women employees of the technical education and training institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa first staged a protest against the provincial government outside the PHC and later submitted the application in the high court.

In the application, the woman employees of the institutions appealed to the chief justice of the PHC to take notice of alleged irregularities and misappropriation of funds of the institutions. They claimed Rs 600 million irregularities had surfaced in the technical education and vocational training institutions of the province.

The employees claimed the institutions were on the verge of destruction after the implementation of the technical Education and Vocational Training Agency Act, 2015 in the name of public-private partnership.

The employees claimed in the application the government in utter violation of the TEVTA Act and public-private partnership took inhuman and unlawful steps. They claimed that 396 employees were appointed against the rules on political basis without any test and interview.

The employees claimed in the application that Rs 2.28 billion of TEVTA funds were transferred in the name of Shaheen Vocational Foundation of the PAF without fulfilling legal procedures required for the purpose.  They also pointed out that millions of rupees equipment, machinery and other tools of the vocational training institutions were shifted to other places. The employees stated in the application that Rs40,000 per employee salary was being withdrawn from the fund, but the actual salaries being paid to the contractual employees came in the range of Rs15,000 to 30,000.

They claimed the TEVTA had been occupied by the retired PAF officers and they were imposing their illegal and unlawful decisions on the employees.