PESHAWAR: More than 794 staffers have been recruited at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by successive speakers at different times, turning the assembly secretariat into an employment exchange, according to official data.

The data, recently uploaded by the assembly secretariat on the official web-site, shows that the secretariat has one officer in BPS-22, the same grade as that of chief secretary of the province, while eight other are in BPS-20. Similarly, there are 23 ofHcers in BPS-19, 48 in BPS-18 and 100 in BPS-17.

Similarly, 86 employees of the assembly are in BPS-16, four in BPS-15, 91 in BPS-14, 17 in BPS-12, 54 in BPS-11, 39 in BPS-11, 15 in BPS-5, 90 in BPS-4 and whopping number of 197 others in BPS-3.

Commenting on the over-employment in the assembly secretariat, the leader of the opposition in KP Assembly, Dr Ibadullah, told Dawn that the recruitment so far made in the assembly would be probed after the formation of house standing committees.

He said that there was no doubt that alot of people was recruited in the provincial assembly. `So many persons have been inducted in the assembly secretariat that many of them even don`t know as to what are their duties. Our stance is very clear that how did this happen,` he said.

Mr Ibadullah said that right now he didn`t know if the recruitment of the employees were in progress or not.

However, he said that one thing he had noticed in the offices inside the assembly secretariat was that `you will notice 10 staff members sitting in one office without knowing what they are supposed to do.

An official in the assembly secretarlat told Dawn that successive speakers had recruited a large number of employees during their respective tenures.`The assembly secretariat is short of space and the bourgeoning employees are unable to even get a chair to sit inside the office,` he said sarcastically.

According to the official data, there are 26 gardeners working in the assembly to tend the lawns and flowerbeds on the premises of Khyber Pakhtunlchwa Assembly. The official said that the lawns on the premises of assembly would not be more than a four-kanal piece of land.

`I am wondering what the gardeners would be doing round the year in such a small space,` he said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swat was not available to comment on the issue despite repeated attempts by this scribe.