Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: After a series of meetings between the Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Region (SAFRON) and Chief Execute Officer (CEO) Tribal Electric Supply Company (TESCO) over appointment of employees by the latter, the Establishment Division secretary has said that though rules had not been followed in recruitment of staff, the employees would not be sacked at this stage.

“The new staff will not be suspended but established procedure has been violated by TESCO to recruit new staff. The TESCO CEO should abide by established rules and regulations in future appointment by giving priority to candidates from FATA,” he noted.

In a committee meeting in December 2017, Dr Muhammad Hashim Pupalzai, the then special secretary establishment division, had stated that under the 2015 of Civil Servants (Appointment, Portion and Transfer) Rules 1973, vacancies and posts in (basic pay scale 3 to 15 and equivalent) in offices which served only a particular province or region should be filled by appointment of persons domiciled in the province or region concerned.

He had said the appointments in FATA TESCO had been made without merit criteria because candidates bearing domicile other than FATA had been recruited. Then Establishment special secretary was of the view that under Rule 15, recruitment in TESCO, which is serving FATA, should be made from the domicile holders of FATA but in this case the same rule has not been followed by TESCO.

According to documents reviewed by Daily Times, the inquiry report stated that eight applicants out of over a three dozen candidates had been appointed illegally by TESCO.

On the basis of the above findings, the documents stated that the Inquiry Committee had observed that the HR and Administration wings of TESCO had not properly adhered to Rule 15 of the Civil Servants (Appointments, Promotion and Transfer Rules) 1973 in its letter and spirit in processing the case of the recruitment against the posts in BS-03 to BS-15 falling in various cadres.

Resultantly, eight candidates hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and not from the area of the jurisdiction of TESCO were appointed to the disadvantage to the candidates hailing from FATA and also to the candidates of KP as none of the candidates mentioned at serial (d) at para 16 belonged to the districts where the infrastructure/offices of TESCO are located.

However, the new Establishment secretary told the committee that the TESCO CEO had bypassed merit in the appointment of staff, but the employees could not be suspended at this stage because of certain reasons. The TESCO CEO has been given a chance to make future appointments from BPS-03 to BPS-15 from FATA domicile holders only, the document stated.

According to recruitment policy of the Federal Services/Autonomous Bodies/Corporation, initial appointments to post in BPS-03 to BPS-15 and equivalent in offices which are required to serve only in a particular province/region shall be filled by the appointment of persons domiciled in the province/region concerned under rule-15 of the Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 1973.

It further stated the vacancies in each Ministry/Division/Department/Autonomous Body/Corporation, as per the Provincial/Regional quota shall be advertised through widely published national, provincial and regional newspapers.

Published in Daily Times, January 14^th 2018.