LG council secretaries: Candidates decry recruitment cancellation

PHC stays government order, hearing on Oct 7.

HARIPUR: Dozens of candidates who tried tooth and nail to ace the National Testing Service tests to secure village and neighbourhood council secretary jobs are enraged at the chief minister cancelling the recruitments.

The candidates protested on Monday outside the Haripur local government assistant director’s office, demanding posting orders. Aftab, Noman, and Shahid, also at the protest, said there were 138 VC secretary vacancies in Haripur.



They added out of 343 candidates, 138 passed both, the test and the interviews. But within no time the provincial government rolled back the recruitments and cancelled the appointments. They insisted the hiring process was fair and transparent.

The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad bench gave a stay order against the cancellation last week. According to Ishaq Battgrami, his clients Azam Shah, Nawaz Shah, Syed Zulqarnain, Atib Mehmood, Yasir Khan, Imran Rashid and others, appeared for the NTS test. He said they passed but were not issued appointment letters. He said his clients believe the hiring process was unfair.

While referring to the appointment orders, Battgrami said there were at least three appointees whose names were incorporated in the list of successful candidates although they did not take the entry test. The court will hear arguments from both sides on October 7, he added.

Muhammad Awais, Wajid Ali and Muhmmad Uzair said a number of village council nazims, tehsil and district councillors have used political influence to secure jobs in the department for their offspring and relatives, in violation of rules.

They also listed names of newly-appointed secretaries who were related to village council nazims, tehsil and district councillors. They demanded fresh recruitments through a transparent process.

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