KU woes: Over 500 illegal employees eat up Rs100m annually

The employees were appointed on six-month contracts on an ad hoc basis due to their political affiliations .

KARACHI:

Over 500 illegal employees of the Karachi University (KU) continue to take home millions of rupees in salaries and allowances, two and a half years after an inquiry report in this context was submitted to the varsity's syndicate, the highest decision-making body.

Since the submission of the report in September 2012, the KU vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Muhammad Qaiser, who is also the syndicate's chairperson, has failed to take appropriate action, causing the university a cumulative loss of over Rs100 million per annum.

"During the tenure of former vice-chancellor, Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, these employees had secured six-month ad-hoc appointments between 2008 and 2011, cashing in on their political connections," a KU syndicate member told The Express Tribune, while requesting anonymity.



For each of these employees, added the syndicate member, the university administration kept on extending the term of appointment for another six-month period whenever their contracts were about to expire.

"The malpractice was followed until 2011 but only to be replaced by a greater malpractice," said the syndicate member. "The contractual appointments of these illegal employees have not been extended since 2011 but they continue to receive salaries and allowances to date."

Criminal inaction

When Dr Qaiser took over as the 16th vice chancellor of the institution, replacing Dr Siddiqui in February 2012, the issue of these appointments that were made in clear violation of rules and regulation was discussed in the syndicate meeting. One of the members, Prof Dr Majid Mumtaz, was tasked to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

Dr Mumtaz submitted his report to the vice chancellor on September 14, 2012, stating that the whole process of [contractual] appointments appears to be void 'ab initio' as these appointments were made in clear violation of the Supreme Court's decision (1996 SCMR 1349).

While inquiring into various complaints of violation of fundamental human rights, the three-member bench, headed by former Chief Justice of Pakistan Muhammad Afzal Zullah, had observed in its order that the federal and provincial governments as well as statutory bodies and public authorities have been making initial recruitments, both ad-hoc and regular, to posts and offices without publicly and properly advertising vacancies and at times by converting ad-hoc appointments into regular appointments.

"This practice is prima facie violative of the fundamental right (Article 18 of the Constitution), guaranteeing to every citizen freedom of profession," concluded the apex court.

Dr Mumtaz resolved that the appointments were made even in violation of the university's own syndicate committee, headed by Barrister Shahida Jameel, which in 2006 had imposed a ban on all future appointments without advertisement, selection committee and selection board.

"The decision was unanimously approved by the then syndicate that the ad-hoc appointments made for a period of six months or till the meeting of the selection board stood illegal," added Dr Mumtaz in his report.

Keeping in view the legal and financial seriousness of the issue, Dr Mumtaz had called for immediate action. "[These illegal employees] will keep on putting financial constraints on the university's budget and it will be difficult to pay salaries, pension and medical facilities to the [genuine] employees," he had said. "Besides, the matter can be taken up and investigated by federal agencies, including National Accountability Bureau and can also be challenged in the court of law, damaging the reputation of our alma mater."

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th,  2015.