KP assembly refuses to hand over recruitment records to anti-corruption directorate

PESHAWAR: A tense standoff is ongoing between the Directorate of Anti-Corruption and the provincial assembly secretariat over an inquiry into the recruitment of 125 people on various posts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Sources said that the influential officers of the provincial assembly secretariat have not handed over the records of the said recruitments to the Directorate of Anti-Corruption Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite eight months of requests, prompting the authorities of the Anti-Corruption Directorate to plan to obtain the records through the Anti-Corruption Court.

According to the sources of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the officials of the Anti-Corruption Directorate contacted the provincial assembly secretariat and the secretary of the provincial assembly several times in the last eight months and asked for the records of the 125 people who were recruited in the final days of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

But the provincial assembly secretariat refused to provide the records to the Directorate of Anti-Corruption KP each time. As a result, the Directorate of Anti-Corruption officials have started taking steps to get the records through alternative means.

Regarding not providing the records of recruitment in the provincial assembly to anti-corruption, the top officials of the provincial assembly secretariat told HUM News English that the KP assembly and the assembly secretariat are not subordinate to the provincial government and the chief secretary and they are ‘independent.’

Therefore, they cannot give the records of recruitment in the assembly to Directorate of Anti-Corruption. They further said that the case is in court and they will prove in court that the recruitments were done transparently and according to merit.

Director Anti-Corruption Directorate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Arif Khan told HUM News English that there were complaints of irregularities regarding the recruitment in the provincial assembly secretariat.

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But the KP assembly has not yet provided the records to the Directorate of Anti-Corruption.

According to the director of anti-corruption, they will now get the records of the provincial assembly through the anti-corruption court.

He made it clear that they will take the inquiry into the recruitment in the KP assembly to its logical conclusion.

Regarding the issue of recruitment in the provincial assembly, the officials of the Provincial Inspection Team (PIT) said that on the instructions of the former KP chief minister, they started an inquiry into the recruitment in the provincial assembly in December 2022 and requested for records from the assembly secretariat.

But they did not receive any records from them, after which they informed the KP Chief Minister’s Secretariat about the situation.

It should be noted that 125 people were recruited in the provincial assembly in the last days of PTI’s provincial government.

Later, many candidates who were left out of the recruitment alleged that the former ministers, MPAs and top officials of the assembly secretariat illegally recruited their close relatives on Grade 16 and Grade 18 posts.