Illegal hiring: Reply sought from K-P govt over RTI appointments

Petitioners say post of secretary was filled without being advertised.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court directed the provincial government and chief information commissioner of Right to Information Commission on Tuesday to file a reply to the petition under which the appointment of 19 employees has been challenged.

A bench comprising Justice Musarat Hilali and Justice Younis Thaheem issued the order while hearing a petition filed by Azizur Rehman and Muhammad Naeem through their counsel Shah
Nawaz Khan.



The petitioners told the court that the appointments of RTI Commission Secretary Mushtaq Ahmad, Commissioner Abdul Mateen, information technology officer Owais Ibrahim Khan and 16 others, including clerks and class IV employees, were not made under the law.

Shah Nawaz informed the court that the post of secretary was created in December 2013 and it was filled on June 2, 2014 without being advertised. Mushtaq was serving as a consultant when he was given the additional charge of secretary.

Although Mushtaq had retired from the post of deputy secretary of the finance department when he was hired as a consultant by RTI Commission, his salary was increased and his service tenure was extended by a year.

“The posting of RTI Commissioner Abdul Mateen was also against the law because Section 24 of RTI Act 2013 states the officer should be an advocate of the high court or Supreme Court,” Shah Nawaz said. “The incumbent commissioner is a retired sessions judge. Therefore, his appointment has not been made on merit.”

The bench was informed that appointments of other employees were also against the law. The court subsequently sought comments from the K-P government and RTI commissioner in
this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2015.