Lining pockets: Inductions in Kashmir liberation cell in violation of merit

Ruling party allegedly inducted its workers in JKLC, minister says they have been regularized.

MUZAFFARABAD:

The ruling party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has allegedly inducted its workers in libration cell violating merit and at the expense of the taxpayers’ money, sources told The Express Tribune on Friday.

In the last two years, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) state chapter has appointed 53 people in the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Cell on grades 17 and 18, who do not meet the criteria, a source in the cell requesting not to be named said.

The degrees and the appointment orders of the officers are not found in office file which suggests that the government has something to hide, the sources added.

The cell was established in mid-1980s to highlight the Kashmir cause at the international forums. It is a semi-government organisation meeting its budgetary requirements from a special tax deducted from the government employees. These officials are drawing fixed salaries between Rs20,000 and Rs74,000.

The money meant for the freedom struggle, welfare of the Kashmiri refugees and for the rehabilitation of the victims of Indian shelling on the Line of Control is being diverted to please the party workers, the source said.

Law minister Azhar Geelani claimed that all the employees of the cell have been regularised through a process which he did not share with the correspondent.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2013.