PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has been going astray from its declared objective of ending nepotism in appointments in every sector, as the policy seems to have been discarded in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Secretariat.

As many as 16 appointments from grade-1 to grade-19 have been made in the assembly secretariat since the present assembly came into being after May 2013 general elections.

Majority of the new appointees hails from Swabi, the native district of the Speaker.

PTI has majority in the KP Assembly and Mr Qaisar belongs to the ruling party. One of the major components of the PTFs election manifesto is upholding merit in recruitment of employees.

Sources said that a steward of Pakistan International Airlines had been appointed ingrade-19 as special secretary to the Speaker.

An officer of grade-20 is already serving as secretary to the Speaker. These sources said that the post of special secretary was being regularised.

A brother-in-law of the Speaker has been appointed in grade-16 in the information technology section of the secretariat a few months ago. He was promoted to grade-17 before completion of his probation period. `This is unprecedented to adjust an employee of a corporation on a senior level post in the assembly, commented one functionary, saying that this was unusual to induct such a large number of employees in the assembly in one year.

Mr Qaisar said that apart from class-IV employees only three officers had been appointed in the secretariat by the present government and the prescribed procedure and merit had been followed. He confirmed the appointment of his close relative in IT section of the secretariat and denied irregularities in new appointments.

`There is a group in the secretariat which was blackmailing me, but they can`t pressurise me through such tactics,` he said and alleged that most of the employees had beenappointed in the secretariat on political grounds in the past. He claimed that the post of special secretary already existed.

Officials said that the existing rules of the assembly empowered its finance committee to make direct appointments for the secretariat, if necessary. The Speaker heads the finance committee, which comprises MPAs and officers of finance department. Other departments send requisition to the Provincial Public Service Commission for filling vacant posts.

`The assembly secretariat has expanded too much and it is virtually turned into an employment exchange bureau,` the official said, adding that there was a serious problem of space in the secretariat.

The sources said that induction of more employees was under consideration in the assembly which was already overstaffed due to `unnecessary appointments` on political grounds. The House`s standing committee on housing and library had turned down a proposal to create 70 vacancies for MPAs` hostel.

Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid had chaired the meeting.

Presently, staff of the provincial buildingmaintenance cell of Communication and Works Department has been deputed in the MPAs` hostel. Strength of employees of the KP Assembly is over 550, which, officials claimed, was almost equal to the National Assembly Secretariat. Mr Qaisar said that the strength of employees in NA was about 900.

The sources said that another proposal was under consideration to strengthen the Public Accounts Committee`s (PAC) cell which was already overstaffed. The cell currently comprises one additional secretary, two deputy secretaries, four assistants and several subordinates.

`The Punjab Assembly has two PACs, but staff working there is less than the KP Assembly PAC`s cell,` said an official source.

He said that some officials had floated the idea of inducting more employees to elevate their positions.

The officials said that Speaker of the National Assembly had recently advertised all vacancies to be filled through the Federal Public Service Commission. They suggested that provincial assemblies should also fill vacant posts through provincial commissions to uphold merit.