ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to proceed against accused individuals highlighted in an inquiry into a recruitment scam within the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco).

Hearing a petition filed against alleged illegal appointments in Iesco, IHC Justice Noorul Haq N.

Qureshi directed the investigation agencies to implement the recommendation of the inquiry committee constituted to probe recruitment at Iesco.

A report by the Ministry of Water and Power (MoWP) submitted to the IHC last month declared a number of appointments made in Iesco `illegal`.

In September last year, Iesco employee Syed Manzoor Kazmi filed a petition with the IHC on the selection of a private services provider, Resource Access, as a recruitment agency even though government organisations prefer the National Testing Service (NTS) to hire employees.

According to the petition the contract for recruitment at Iesco was awarded to a company with no experience, which was also an overseas employment provider without a licence.

The MoWP conducted an inquiry into the matter which conclude d in December 2015, and a committee for this purpose included Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) general manager Altaf Zia, MoWP deputy secretary Suleman Khan Warraich and Pepco director Saghir Ahmed.

It found that those responsible for the wrongful evaluation of Resource Access, and for recommending that the contract be awarded to this company against procurement rules, were Iesco general manager Tariq Mehmood, former operation director Fayyaz Hussein Siddiqui,manager Aurangzeb Khan and assistant manager Nusrat Parveen.

According to the report, 69 appointments made in Iesco were `against the advertised criteria` The report recommended referring the Resource Access case to NAB for the recovery of funds collected from the candidates affected by the unlawful and unethical recruitments. IHC will take up the matter during the first week of June.