Daily Times

In 1979, the world witnessed a great movement of refugees crossing borders into Pakistan to seek shelter due to the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government established the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees in the Ministry of SAFRON to facilitate them in each provincial capital. A Chief Commissionerate was set up in Islamabad. Its mandate was to look after Afghan refugees. Unfortunately, the organisation has turned into a white elephant.

Plagued with corruption, nepotism and favouritism, this institution has added to the miseries of Afghan refugees as well as its own workers. Recently a team from the Anti Corruption Circle Peshawar has started a full-fledged inquiry into the affairs of Afghan Commissionerate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The FIA has noticed a violation of the rules of the federal government recruitment policy, The Afghan Commissionerate, Peshawar, has illegally recruited 28 people in BPS-16.

Under the rules, in case of new inductions, 50 per cent of the jobs are to be given to junior employees for upgrade. The quota has been denied to the low-grade workers.

The Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues informed the federal government in January 2017 that the post of refugee village administrator had been upgraded to BPS-17 by the Establishment Division with effect from March 31, 1991. It asked how the recruitment was made in BPS-16 instead of BPS-17.

Principal secretary to prime minister is blamed for illegal appointments and promotions in the Afghan refugees commissionerate

Most of the new recruits belong to Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan. The Federal Public Service Commission has been bypassed and no advertisement were placed in newspapers. Quotas for women, minorities and disabled persons were not observed. The CAR-Peshawar blamed the lack of advertising the post on a lack of budgetary allocation for carrying an advertisement in the newspapers. Asked whether the ad had been carried over social media, there was no reply.

Many project employees were promoted from assistant director to deputy director in violation of rules.

An assistant director was made the project director by establishing a special youth cell. The reason given was his seniority. However, dozens of officers working in CAR-Peshawar were senior to him. Another reason given by the authorities for appointing him was his honesty.

Another employee, who was recently recruited as refugee village administrator, has been elevated to the post of additional commissioner although he was the junior-most employee. Another RVA has been appointed the Chitral district administrator in violation of rules.

A female employee has been reappointed as monitoring officer. She was previously sacked for being a ‘ghost’ employee.

The principal secretary to prime minister has been accused of illegal appointments and promotions.

An officer who retired from CAR-Peshawar as district administrator has been illegally retained as deputy director (repatriation). The commissionerate authorities have admitted that more than 40 employees are over-age.

Another suspect area is that of raises and daily allowances. An accountant is accused of illegal deductions from workers’ salaries. The dailies are paid by UNHCR in a lump sum. Official vehicles have been allotted to even those who have desk jobs. The vehicles are being used for personal matters. Laptops, air conditioners and other equipment provided by the UNHCR for different projects is illegally retained by CAR employees for personal use.

Many CAR employees have others jobs in a violation of Efficiency and Discipline Rules, 1974. A CAR-Peshawar employee is a PCB cricket coach. Some of the workers are moonlighting as journalists.

The dismal state of affairs calls for strict surveillance and monitoring by the federal government.

The writer is a Pakistani journalist based in Malaysia