Provincial quota violated in AIOU appointments

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) violated provincial quota in appointment of employees for its main campus during the last four years.

According to documents available with Dawn, the university made 798 appointments at its main campus between January 1, 2007 and January 31, 2011. Out of these, 298 were regular in basic pay scale (BPS) 1 to 21 (233 from BPS 1 to 16 and 65 from BPS 17 and above), 78 appointed on contractual basis and 422 employees were hired on daily wages in BPS 1 to 15.
According to rules; 7.5 per cent of the employees should be appointed on open merit and the remaining through provincial quotas: Punjab 50 per cent, Sindh rural 11.40 per cent; Sindh urban 7.60 per cent, KP 11.50 per cent, Balochistan 6.7 per cent, Azad Jamu & Kashmir 2 per cent and Fata/Fana 4 per cent. Besides, all staff in grade 1 and 2 should be appointed from Islamabad.
The documents, however, showed that 43 regular appointments were made in BPS 1 and 2, but only eight of them belonged to Islamabad while 30 were from Punjab, four from KP and one was from AJK.
Out of the 100 regular appointments In BPS 7; 15 were from Islamabad, 69 from Punjab, 15 from KP and one was from AJK. However, Sindh, Balochistan and Fata/Fana were ignored. In BPS 16; total 38 permanent employees were appointed out of whom four were from Islamabad, 24 from Punjab, five from KP and only one was from Sindh.
In these inductions, Balochistan was again ignored. Among the officers in BPS 20, nine were appointed on regular basis – seven from Punjab and two from Sindh.
Out of the total 298 regular officers/officials, only one was from Balochistan and six came from Sindh.
As many as 78 appointments were made on contractual basis: six from Islamabad, 56 from Punjab, 11 from KP, three from Sindh and only one was from Balochistan.
Of the 422 daily wagers; 58 were from Islamabad, 277 from Punjab, 59 from KP, 14 from Sindh and only two from Balochistan.
In most of the appointments, Punjab got the lion`s share compared to its quota. Besides, KP also got its quota in some cases but Sindh and Balochistan were mostly ignored.
An official of the university on the condition of anonymity said: “The management of the AIOU violated the rules due to which persons who deserved to get the jobs on merit were ignored. Due to these steps, there is resentment among the employees as well as people belonging to small provinces and the federal capital.”
Usually, tens times more applications were received for limited number of vacancies, so the management cannot make an excuse that they had appointed the employees from other provinces because of unavailability of applications. If there are few applications against the quota of any province, then the vacancies should be left vacant, another official added,
When contacted, the public relations officer of AIOU, Ubaidullah Mumtaz said according to general rules 50 per cent appointments are made directly and the remaining through internal hiring. He said the university strictly followed the provincial quota.
The selection board has to get the approval of appointment from the executive council which cannot allow anything against the law because representatives of chief justices of the Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court also participated in the meetings of the council, of which the president of Pakistan is the chairman.

Published in Daily Dawn Islamabad on December 27, 2011