Mardan varsity sacks illegally appointed 271 employees

MARDAN: The Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan on Friday sacked 271 employees who were recruited through illegal ways and fake documents, an official said. The university administration also issued show-case notices to the officials who were involved in the process of making the appointments. Mian Saleem Khan, spokesperson for Abdul Wali Khan University, told The News that more than 441 employees were recruited in the university through advertisement number 48.

He added that 271 employees were regular and 171 were contractual. He recalled that the contractual employees were sacked a few weeks ago while the regular 271 employees were removed from their jobs on Friday.

He pointed out that several reports were carried in the press about the violation of merit in the recruitment process. He said the advertisement was published in the newspapers on September 2015 for the appointment of Demonstrators (BPS-16), Office Assistants (BPS-16), Upper Division Clerks (BPS-14), Key Punch Operators (KPOs) (BPS-11) and Laboratory Assistants (BPS-7).

Mian Saleem Khan, the university's spokesperson, said some candidates had also approached the Peshawar High Court to challenge the appointments. He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had also launched an inquiry into the allegations regarding the appointments.

Mian Saleem Khan informed that the university administration had appointed a four-member inquiry committee on the directives of the governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on January 3 to probe any wrongdoing.

He said the Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had also directed the university administration to probe the matter. He maintained that the inquiry report of the Mashal Khan lynching case had also mentioned that merit was violated in the recruitment process. Meanwhile, the sacked employees staged protest outside the administration block of the university to condemn the decision.