In the year 1979, the world witnessed a great influx of
refugees crossing the borders and coming into Pakistan to find shelter due to
the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Government established the
Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees (CAR) in Ministry of SAFRON to facilitate
them in each Provincial capital with its Chief Commissionerate based in
Islamabad. Its mandate is to look after the Afghan Refugees But unfortunately it
has turned into a white elephant like many other government departments.
Plagued with corruption, nepotism and favoritism, this institution has added to
the miseries of not only the afghan refugees but as its own employees. Recently
the FIA’s Anti Corruption Circle Peshawar has started a full fledged inquiry to
probe in the affairs of Afghan Cmmissionerate KP. It has been noticed by FIA
that in violation of the rules and regulations of the federal government
recruitment policy, the Afghan commissionerate Peshawar has illegally recruited
28 blue-eyed people in BPS-16. As per rules, in case of new inductions, 50 per
cent quota was to be given to the junior employees for their upgradation yet
this was denied to the employees in lower grades. The Accountant General
Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) has informed the federal government via letter No.TM
(F) legal Cell/2016-171291 issued on January 1 2017 that the post of Refugee
Village Administrator (BPS 16) had been upgraded from BPS-16 to BPS-17 by the
Establishment Division with effect from March 31, 1991, and questioned how the
recruitment was made in BPS-16 instead of BPS-17. Most of these newly recruits
belong to Bannu, Lakki Marwat and D.I Khan. The Federal Public Service
Commission has been bypassed with no advertisement in widely published national
dailies and the quota for women, minorities and disabled persons have not been
observed. The CAR Peshawar extended reason of no budgetary allocation for
advertisement in the newspapers but when pointed out regarding internal
advertisement or even publishing the same over social media then there was no
reply.
In order to elevate the blue eyed ones, different tactics have been adopted.
Many Project employees have been promoted from Assistant Director to Deputy
Director despite the fact that there is no concept of promotion in a
project.Similarly the Assistant Director has been directly made Project Director
by establishing a special youth cell for this purpose. The reason given is his
seniority although dozens of officers working in CAR Peshawar are far senior
than him. Another reason stated by CAR authorities for appointing him as PD is
his honesty but when asked whether other employees are dishonest and if yes then
why they haven’t been expelled yet, the reply was a long silence.
Another employee who was recently recruited as Refugee Village Administrator (RVA)
has been elevated to the post of Additional Commissioner although he is a junior
most employee. Similarly one RVA has been appointed as District Administrator
Chitral In violation of rules. Another female employee has been reappointed as
Monitoring officer. Interestingly this lady was sacked by the previous
commissioner for being a ‘’Ghost Employee’’. Sources say that CAR authorities
are quoting the name of the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister for these
illegal appointments and promotions.
Apart from such promotions, many over aged and retired employees are still
retained in violation of Supreme Court judgments and civil servants act 1973.
The glaring example is that of an empoyee who got retired from CAR Peshawar as
District Administrator but has been illegally retained as Deputy Director
Repatriation. The commissionerate authorities have confirmed the figure of more
than 40 employees who are over aged, some of them being over 70 years.
Another grey area is that of salary increase and Daily Allowance (DSA).One
accountant is blamed for illegal deductions from salaries of employees. The
amount of DSA is paid by UNHCR in lump sum but its bigger chunk is
misappropriated for Commissionerate high ups. Official vehicles have been
allotted to even those who have only desk job depriving many senior field
officers of the transportation facility. The official vehicles are being used
for the personal and family affairs. The Laptops, Air Conditioners and other
equipment provided by the UNHCR for different projects are illegally retained by
CAR employees for their personal use upon its completion. The CAR employees are
involved in doing multiple jobs in violation of Efficiency and Discipline Rules
1974. For example one CAR Peshawar employee is an official PCB cricket coach who
remained in Iran for a 3 year assignment. Some are doing journalism while others
are doing parallel jobs in other private sector organizations and drawing only
salary from CAR. Recently in an Anti Encroachment Drive by the Deputy
Commissioner Peshawar, the inhabitants of the refugees’ camp disclosed that they
pay illegal gratification for erecting illegal structures to the District
Administration of CAR Peshawar. All these state of affairs need a strict
surveillance and monitoring by the Federal Government whose basic slogan is
accountability and zero tolerance of corruption and malpractices.