UET official’s Wasa stay ‘extended illegally’
Lahore :03 June : The Services and General Administration Department is learnt to have opposed the extension in deputation period of a University of Engineering and Technology official working as Wasa director (admin) in Lahore for more than three years, terming the move illegal and likely to be challenged in a court.
Sources said despite opposition by the S&GAD, which handles all such matters, the CM Secretariat has approved a summary seeking the extension in official’s deputation period. Neither CM’s principal secretary nor the secretary of housing department (Wasa’s parent department) was available for comments. However, top officials in Wasa and city district government did confirm the move.
Wasa Managing Director Dr Javaid Iqbal said he had heard the summary had been approved by the chief minister but had not seen anything in writing as yet. He said the post was meant for the officers to be sent on deputation by the S&GAD.
Lahore UET Deputy Registrar Muhammad Irfan was appointed as Lahore Wasa director (admin) on deputation around three years ago. Thus Mr Irfan, a BS-17 officer then, was appointed against a BS-19 post, making him boss to several officials senior to him. He was later promoted to BS-18 and his three-year term in Wasa reportedly ended in April this year.
Mr Irfan says the chief minister ruled out S&GAD objections, extending his deputation period by one year. “The chief minister is competent to do so,” he said when asked can the chief executive reject a legal opinion by a department concerned.
According to information gleaned by Dawn, the S&GAD has declared that as per Rule 15 (1) of the Punjab Civil Servants rules 1974, only an official of an autonomous or semi-autonomous body of the federal government, provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan or Azad Kashmir can be eligible for appointment on deputation to the said post. The officer must also possess minimum educational qualification, experience or comparable length of service prescribed for the post. And as per the current deputation policy, the deputation period should not generally exceed three years.
The S&GAD has declared that Mr Irfan is an employee of the UET which is an autonomous institution as per Second Schedule of Rules of Business, 2011. Therefore, the department says, he does not belong to the government and is not a civil servant as per the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974. His qualification and experience is also not relevant to the Wasa post, the S&GAD says.
It is also declared that at the time Mr Irfan was allowed his initial posting in Wasa, the S&GAD was not consulted and it was an arrangement between two autonomous organisations — UET and LDA, which was contrary to the Rule 14 of the Rules of Business, 1974, adopted as Rule 16 of the Rules of Business, 2011.
According to these rules, S&GAD is authorised to determine principles of control of government servants, including recruitment, conditions of service and discipline. It has said that extension of an ineligible officer may create resentment among other officers of the feeding cadre and block their promotion prospects, setting a wrong precedent that is likely to encourage more such appointments against the policy.Dawn.
