HARIPUR: The suspension of five senior officers of Khanpur TehsilMunicipalAdministration, and only seeking explanation from nine other officials of the civic bodies from Hazara division for same offence has drawn strong reaction of the civic body employees here, terming the action discriminatory.

The secretary Local Council Board (LCB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had suspended five TMA officers, including tehsil municipal officer, tehsil officer revenue, tehsil officer finance, tehsil officer infrastructure and a sub-engineer on April 4 for absenting from duty, which caused obstacles in disposal of services of the municipal body.

A notification issued to this effect also mentioned that theofficers were time and again warned not to skip duty without prior permission and intimation to senior officers, and that regional municipal officer, Hazara, Afzal Khan, for the last time reported the matter to secretary LCB on April 3 when he found them absent from duty, leading to their suspension.

However, according to a letter issued to nine other tehsil municipal officers of Hazara division, including TMOs of Abbottabad, Kolai Kohistan, L ora, Battagram, Alai, Daur Mera, Bankhad/ Ranolia, Harban Bhasha, Kandia and Seo Kohistan on April 4, the LCB administration officer (E-H) interestingly only sought explanation from them despite the fact that they were also found absent from duty, and were charged of the similar offence.

Commenting on the two different penalties for the sameoffence, a senior officer in Khanpur TMA, while requesting anonymity, termed the action discriminatory and uncalled for.

`One cannot justify two different penalties for a similar offence as thereisnoprecedentofsuchlopsided justice,` said one of the suspended officers.

He said when all the officers were found skipping duty there should have been a uniform action against all of them rather than exposing five to public humiliation and simply seeking explanation from the nine others.

When contacted, regional municipal officer Afzal Khan told Dawn that under the newlydeveloped SOPs the daily attendance of all the staff members of TMAs across Hazara was sent to secretary LCB at 10am and five officers of TMA Khanpur were found absent both on April 3 and 4 and were habitual so they facedstern action of suspension, while nine other TMOs skipped their duty for the firsttime.

He said these nine officers were posted to their present stations of duty hardly 12 days ago.

Khanpur tehsil chairman Raja Haroon Sikandar was not available for comments on the matter.

GIRL KILLED: A minor girl was killed and eight others, including women and children, were injured when the van they were travelling in plunged into a ravine near Beesbun, a remote area of Khanpur, here the other day.

The cause of the accident was a mechanical fault.

The police said the van was on way to Khoee Kamman village from Tarnava area carrying nine passengers to attend a wedding ceremony.

The villagers shifted the injured to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Khanpur.

The deceased was identified as Aiza Javed, 6. Three critically injured women were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Haripur.