PESHAWAR: Serious irregularities have been found in recruitments at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission.
Former director Internal Monitoring and Public Complaints Wing, Brig (retd) Tariq Hussain, has brought to light the recruitments made in violation of merit in his report for the period starting from Nov 2014 to Aril 1, 2016. The report says that no record of such appointments is available with the Commission which have been made in violation of merit, while eligible candidates were not called for test and interviews.
The report says no financial audit of the Ehtesab Commission had been conducted since 2014. However, KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak has said that the Ehtesab Commission is an independent department and the government has nothing to do with its recruitments.
Also, acting director general (DG) Brig (retd) Sajjad Khan has rejected the report saying all appointments were made on merit. Terming the report one-sided, he said the appointments were re-evaluated through internal audit. He said 96 out of total 151 officers and officials have been regularised so far, while cases of 55 officers and officials are pending with courts currently. He said various letters have been sent to the Auditor-General office for audit of financial matters of the Commission, but they have not sent any team for the purpose so far.
Brig (retd) Tariq Hussain said his report was based on facts. He found irregularities in appointments of 170 employees. The report also objected to appointment of incumbent acting director general Brig (retd) Muhammad Sajjad as human resource director.
According to the monitoring report, 62 candidates had submitted their applications for the post of Director Investigation. However, 60 applications were rejected without any reason and only two candidates – Brig (retd) Saleem Ashraf and Brig (retd) Hadeed Anwar Malik – were called for an interview on Nov 27, 2014. No committee was formed for short-listing of the candidates. Later on, the interview sheet was got disappeared. Applications of two applicants – Ghulam Hussain and M Nadeem Athar – also went missing from record. Ghulam Hussain, Mufti Abdul Haq Shah and Air Commodore (retd) Nadeem Athar were suitable candidates for the slot, but they were ignored. Brigadier (retd) Hadeed Anwar Malik was selected for appointment but he did not join the department.
There were two vacancies of Additional Director Investigation, and a total of 63 candidates had applied for them. As many as 61 of them were rejected without assigning any reasons, and only two candidates – Lt-Colonel (retd) Sardar Ali and Lt-Colonel (retd) Hussain Ahmad Afridi were called for an interview on Nov 27, 2014.
Lt-Colonel (retd) Sardar Ali was appointed on Dec 3, 2014, and Col (retd) Saifullah on Dec 8, 2014.
On Dec 4, 2014, Sardar Ali was given the additional charge of Director Investigation. Col (retd) Saifullah had applied for deputy director post, however, he was appointed as additional director, while Lt-Colonel (retd) Hussain Ahmad Afridi was ignored. Names of Sardar Ali and Saifullah were not included in candidates’ list, but these were added to the list by hand, later on. Minimum educational qualification was graduation for this post, while Sardar Ali’s qualification was only FSc.
Lt-Col (retd) Ajmal and Fida Muhammad were suitable candidates for this post, but they were ignored. Also, the applications of Malik Ajmal, Engineer Asad, Lt-Col (retd) Khurram, Gull Nawaz, Pervaiz, Muhammad Rafique and Shaukat were got disappeared from the record.
For six posts of Deputy Director Investigation, 48 candidates had applied. Applications of 40 of them were rejected without giving any reasons, while eight candidates – Col (retd) Saifullah, Lt-Col (retd) Ajmal Khan, Fida Muhammad, Saleh Muhammad, Muhammad Mahmood Alam, SP (retd) Muhammad Rafique, SP (retd) Enayatullah, and SP (retd) Muhammad Hashim were called for interview. Col (retd) Saifullah was appointed as additional director instead of deputy director, for which he had applied.
For 12 vacancies of Assistant Director Investigation, 82 candidates had applied. Sixty-four of them were rejected without assigning any reasons while 18 candidates were called for an interview. Those called were: DSP (retd) Muhammad Akbar Marwat, DSP (retd) Mustafa Gull, DSP (retd) Rahim Khan, Kashif Khan Sikandari, Syed Askar Ali Shah, Noorul Qamar, Mian Mizajullah, Subedar Maj (retd) Hussainuddin, Muhammad Sikandar Khan, Bashir Muhammad, Engineer Arif Niaz, SP (retd) Ikhtiar Gull, AIG (retd) Muhammad Fiaz, Shaukat Pervaiz, DSP (retd) Sultan Akbar, Mian Jawad Younus, SP (retd) Qazi Inamullah and Adnan Pervaiz. Kashif, Shaukat and Adnan did not appear for interview, while DSP (retd) Mian Mustafa Gull, Subedar Major (retd) Hashamuddin and AIG (retd) Muhammad Fiaz were appointed to the Commission on Dec 3, 2014. Three applications were got disappeared from the record. Muhammad Sikandar Khan and Bashir Muhammad did not possess any experience in investigation. In the interview, the chairman rejected them and wrote “No” in the interview sheet. Later on, the ‘No’ was found converted into a ‘Yes’ in the sheet.
Subedar Major (retd) Hashamuddin also did not fulfil the criterion. He got retirement from the Pak Army in grade 16, while the requirement was fulfilled by those retiring in grade 17.
For one post of Assistant Director Administration, 78 applications were received. Seventy-four applications were rejected without giving any reasons, while four candidates Rehman Shah, Wali Khan Adil Ali Shah and Muhammad Farooq Khan were called for interviews. Muhammad Farooq Khan joined the Commission on Dec 3, 2014, though his name was not included in the list of successful candidates. His name had been inserted into the list by hand on 78th place. Only 31 applications received for the post are available in the record, and 47 have gone missing. Interestingly, Muhammad Farooq had no experience in administrative affairs.
For one post of land revenue expert, seven applications were received, four were rejected, and two candidates – Syed Gull Jamal and Abdur Rehman – were called for an interview. Abdur Rehman was appointed to the post, though no record of the interview is available. Later on, this official was appointed as Assistant Director Investigation.
For the Legal Expert one post, 15 applications were received. Ten of them were rejected without assigning any reasons, while five candidates – Noman Shah Wajdan, Alamzeb Khattak, Muhammad Ahmad Asif Paracha, Sadaqat Ali and Zahid Aman were called for interviews. Zahid Aman was appointed as Legal Expert on Dec 3, 2014, and later on he was made deputy prosecutor general (DPG). For the post, 15 years experience was a requirement, but Zahid Aman had only two years experience in National Accountability Bureau as special prosecutor.
For one post of Technical expert, 28 applications were received. Twenty-six of them were rejected without assigning any reasons, and two candidates – Bilal Ayaz Khan and Imran Khan – were called for interviews.
For one post of PSO (personal staff officer) to Director General, no record is available as to how many applications were received and how many were rejected. However, three candidates – Hizbullah Khan, Aiman Idrees and Major (retd) Sardar Ahsan Alam were called for interviews. Sardar Ahsan Alam was appointed to the post on Dec 1, 2014. Later on, he became Acting Director Human Recourse on Jan 13, 2015. After passage of some time, he was appointed Additional Director Investigation, though no official record is available in this regard.
For two posts of deputy prosecutor general, 18 applications were received. Eight of them were rejected while six candidates – Malik Akhtar Hussain Awan, Suhail Akhtar, Muhammad Tariq Shah, Qazi Babar Irshad, Zahid Aman and Malik Haroon Iqbal – were called for Jan 14, 2015. Zahid Aman had already been working in the Commission as a legal expert. He was appointed as deputy prosecutor general on Feb 18, 2015.
For six posts of deputy director investigation, 56 applications were received, 46 were rejected and 10 were called for interview including SSP (retd) Ehsanur Rehman, Director (retd) Muhammad Tariq, Saleh Muhammad, SP (retd) Muhammad Aslam Khan, Col (retd) Kamran Rahim, Lt-Col (retd) Naseer Ahmad Khattak, Lt-Col (retd) Javed Iqbal Khattak, Lt-Col (retd) Tariq Mahmood Butt, Lt-Col (retd) Habibur Rehman and Muhammad Adil Khan. Saleh Muhammad and SP (retd) Muhammad Aslam Khan were appointed to the posts on Fen 16, 2015.
For nine posts of assistant director investigation, 53 applications were received, 43 were rejected while 10 candidates were called for interview including DSP (retd) Asal Mir Khan, Inspector (retd) Haroon Kamal, DSP (retd) Fareedullah Khan, Warrant Officer (retd) Sultan Muhammad, DSP (retd) Rahim Khan, Inspector (retd) Latifullah Yousaf, DSP (retd) Muhammad Akbar Marwat, Abdur Rehman, Captain (retd) Abdul Waheed Khan and Inspector (retd) Muhammad Ashraf. On Feb 16, 2015, Asal Mir Khan, Rahim Khan, Muhammad Akbar Marwat, Abdur Rehman and Abdul Waheed Khan were appointed to the posts. Rahim Khan was found overage. He and Muhammad Akbar Marwat were appointed despite being rejected by the selection committee. Documents of Inayatur Rehman, Javed Iqbal, Sohail Kahn and Capt (retd) Abdul Waheed were missing. Fort-two applications were received for Director Finance and Audit and 35 of them were rejected without giving any reason. Seven candidates, including Mutahir Rehman, Abdul Qadeer, Mausam Khan, Liaquat Ali Khan, Abdul Hadi Khattak, Abdul Qayyum and Haider Ali were shortlisted and Abdul Qadeer was appointed on February 16, 2015. Fourteen applications were received for the post of Director Information Technology and Data Processing and 11 of them were rejected without giving any reason. Ahmad Kamran, Akbar Zaman and Qazi Fahad were shortlisted and Akbar Zaman was appointed on February 16, 2015. However, only one of his four experience letters could be verified.
For the post of Director HR, 31 applications were received and 24 of them were rejected and Amal Zada Khan, Afzal Manan, Danish Shahryar, Air Commodore (retd) Zahir Shah, Fazl-i-Rabbi, Brig (retd) Rizwan Ahmed and Brig (retd) Muhammad Sajjad were shortlisted. No record of the shortlist is available. Brig (retd) Muhammad Sajjad was appointed on March 16, 2015. No record is available for the process. Muhammad Sajjad has no experience in human resource. Seventy-three applications were received for two posts of Additional Director Investigation. Sixty-seven applications were rejected. DIG (retd) Iftikhar Khan, Lt-Col (retd) Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Lt-Col (retd) Sajjad-ur-Rehman, Lt-Col (retd) Haider Kareem, Col (retd) Amjad Khan and Maj (retd) Sardar Ahsan were shortlisted. Lt-Col (retd) Muhammad Ajmal Khan was appointed on August 3, 2015. PSPO to DG Maj (retd) Sardar Alam was appointed additional director investigation on July 28, 2015. Iftikhar and Amjad were called for interview without approval. Applications of Sikander Rehman and Mubarak Zeb went missing.
Eighty-five applications were received for one post of Deputy Director Investigation and 78 of them were rejected. AIG (retd) Muhammad Fayyaz Khan, SP (red) Akhtar Ali Khan, SSP (retd) Ghulam Hussain, Lt-Col (retd) Akmal Khan, Wing Commander (retd) Liaqat Ali, Major (retd) Khursheed Zaman Shinwari and Lt-Col (retd) Junaid Javed Siddiqui were shortlisted and AIG (retd) Muhammad Fayyaz was appointed, who was later appointed Deputy Director Complaint. He himself was a member of the selection committee. One hundred and twenty-four applications were received for five posts of Assistant Director Investigation and DSP (retd) Sardar Riazuddin, DSP (retd) Zahir Shah, Naib Subedar (retd) Hafiz Anwar, Naib Subedar (retd) Muhammad Tariq, SP (retd) Pardil Khan, Warrant officer (retd) Dervaish, DSP (retd) Asif Jan Khan, DSP (retd) Muhammad Iqbal, Lt-Col (retd) Akmal Khan, Aqeel Hussain and Maj (retd) Khursheed Zaman Shinwari were shortlisted for interview. Akmal and Khursheed were shortlisted for the post of Deputy Director Investigation. Sardar Riaz uddin Zahir Shah, Hafiz Anwaar, Muhammad Tariq, Perdil Khan, Dervish and Asif Jan Khan took written test and sub major (retd) Tariq, Warrant Officer (retd) Dervish and Hafiz Anwar were appointed on August, 10, 2015. However, applications of experienced officers of ISI and other investigation agencies were rejected.
For the three posts of Assistant Director Internal Monitoring 106 applications were received, out of which 98 were rejected; and eight candidates, including Major (retd) Mansoor, Muhib Wali, Khawaja Daniyal, Wasim Khan, Major (retd) Khalid Sarwar, Ali Bangash, Mian Muaz Gul and Sikandar Khan were shortlisted, out of them Ali Bangash was appointed on 27th of July, 2015. For two posts of Assistant Director HR, 129 applications were received out of which 117 were rejected on different grounds and 12 applicants, including Tanveer Iqbal, Shujaat Kamal, Muhammad Ahmed Yar bin Naveed, Munir Ahmed, Imranullah Khan, Muhammad Bilal Khan, Gohar Zaman, Adeel-ur-Rehman, Suhail Ahmed, Irum Pervaiz and Asif Qayyum were shortlisted; on 27th July, 2015, Imranullah Khan was appointed. His appointment faced objection that other two persons were suitable for the post but why Imranullah Khan and Irum Pervaiz were shortlisted. Imranullah Khan did not have experience of HR department. For two posts of special prosecutor, 18 applications were received; nine were rejected while nine candidates, including Arshad Durrani, Ateeq-ur-Rehman, Farooq Shah, Irshad Hussain, Muhammad Riaz, Gabriel Francis, Anwar Zeb, Qamar-un-Nisa and Syed Awais Qarni were shortlisted and after written test Arshad Durrani, Ateeq-ur-Rehman, Farooq Shah and Irshad Hussain were called for interview.
On 27th of August, 2015, Farooq Shah was appointed. During the recruitment process, the shortlisted candidates were not asked to submit detail of their successful cases and they were appointed on the base of interview only. For one post of Director Investigation, 69 applications were received out of which 62 were rejected and seven candidates, including Lieutenant-Col(retd) Sarfraz Khan, Major (retd) Wali Muhammad, Col(retd) Saifullah, Col(retd) Mehmood Khan, Brig (retd) Ishaq Ahmed, Lt-Col (retd) Muhammad Ejaz and Lt-Col (retd) Muhammad Amjad were shortlisted; however, Lt-Col (retd) Sarfraz did not appear in interview and on 8th of February, 2016, Lt-Col (retd) Amjad Khan was appointed, who retired on 3rd of March, 2016. The selection was made without merit only on the base of interview while other members, already recruited in other institutions, were also called for interview.
For eight posts of computer operators, 620 applications were received, while there is no record available regarding the short-listed candidates, rejected applications or candidates called for interviews. However, on 17th of December, 2014, six candidates, including Fahad Imtiaz, Abad-ur-Rehman, Shoaib Younus, Adil Nawaz, Fahad Rauf Jan and Syed Adil, Ali Abid were recruited. No merit list was prepared rather these persons were recruited on the base of interview and no record of test or interview is available. The name of Computer Operator Fahed Imtiaz was not in the list. For 28 posts of drivers, 352 applications were received. Once again, no record was found regarding approval or rejection of applications, shortlisted candidates. However, 28 candidates were recruited. For 25 posts of gardener, four posts of chowkidar, and four posts of scavenger, there is no record available.
For one post of admin officer, 386 applications were received, with 374 being rejected without citing any reason. The 12 shortlisted candidates were: Tahir Ejaz, Fahad Imtiaz, Muneeba Nafees, Fakhar Alam Orakzai, Wasim Akram, Farhan Muzzamil, Sohailzada, Waqar Ahmed, Wasim Adam Khan, Malik Aziz-ur-Rehman, Jalal Ahmed and Amjad Khan.
But on March 15, 2015, Fahad Imtiaz – who was working as computer operator in the organisation – was appointed Admin Officer. There is no record of how many candidates appeared for interview, as appointment was made on the basis of interview only without any merit list. The record of written examination is also not available.
Meanwhile, 219 applications out of 241 submitted for the 10 posts of Senior Clerk were rejected without mentioning any reason. Thus, 22 candidates were shortlisted. The 10 persons appointed as Senior Clerk on April 28, 2015 were: Arshad Khan, Naqeebullah, Muhammad Ayaz, Muhammad Irfan, Niaz Muhammad, Muhammad Ejaz, Fazal, Razzaq, Tahir Khan, Naveed Ali and Ghulam Akbar. It could not be ascertained how the marks were given to them, while the certificates of many could also be not verified.
In case of the two posts of Telephone Operator, there were 142 applications but 128 got rejected. Shahid Naz, Imran Ali, Wajid Ali Naz, Javedullah, Zar Gul, Adnan, M Bilal, Haider Khan, Samad Khan, Abu Zar, Abid Gul, M Shakeel, Shafiullah and Syeda Talat were shortlisted. Later, Imran Ali and Syeda Talat were selected. No test was conducted for these posts and the record of only candidate is available.
On the other hand, 14 candidates were shortlisted for the two posts of Accountant receiving 436 applications and rejecting 422 of these. Two of them, Amjad Khan and Ibrahim Durrani were selected without any merit list and only after interview.
For the nine posts of Computer Operator, 1211 application were submitted. Of these, 57 candidates were shortlisted after rejecting the others. Nine of them were selected for interview after a written test. Qazi Kamal-ud-Din, Fawad Saeed, Shabbir Ahmed, Naeemullah, Abdullah and Yasir Ali were appointed after interview, with Abdul Basit, Abdul Waheed and Yousaf Ali placed on waiting list. But they were too selected after some time.
Of the nine appointed persons, the typing speed of five was less than 30 words per minute. And it was only 11 words per minute in case Yousaf.
There were 1,106 applications for 18 posts of Junior Clerk and 190 were shortlisted for test after rejecting the remaining. Later, 90 of them were called for interview. On July 30, 2015, Faiz Ali, Ashfaq Ahmed, Asfandyar Waseem, Haseeb Sadiq were selected. Afterwards, Faizan, Fawad Ali, Faiz-ul-Haq, Faqir Muhammad, Asad Ali Siddiqui, Bilal Ahmed and M Jawad were also appointed on August 3, 2015. But in case too, there was no any merit and these candidates didn’t any relevant experience. For example, Asad had a typing speed of seven words minute followed by Fawad 12, Ashfaq 19 and Faiz 28.
Acting DG Brig (retd) Muhammad Sajjad said the documents and experience certificates of all the persons appointed in Ehtesab Commission had been verified after sending the same to the relevant institutions, but those with unverified documents were dismissed.
He declared the report as baseless, biased and one-sided, saying the relevant party had not been heard, adding that verification of educational certificates took time.
He said the Ehtesab Commission did not have the HR staff for inductions and the process was, therefore, completed with the assistance of Project Management Unit of P&D, ACE and other organisations, adding that the Project Management Unit did not provided the record of applications.
On the other hand, Brig (retd) Tariq Hussain said he stood by his report and added that there were irregularities in the appointment of 170 people, which mentioned. They were inducted by unlawful use of authority against merit, as favourites had been appointed without even calling the eligible candidates for test and interview, he added.
