LAHORE
Illegal hiring of lower staff in the Customs Department has angered employees of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Customs Department, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to sources, dozens of lower division clerks (LDC) in Basic Pay Scale (BPS-7) were appointed across Pakistan, primarily in Lahore, in the last two months without following the rules of business.
According to sources, the high-ups of the FBR were not in favour of activating the Customs union due to fear of politics within the department. According to sources, it was necessary to follow the rules of business for appointing the employees and the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict also demanded the postings be carried out in a fair and transparent manner.
They said that some Customs officials were bribed for making the appointments. According to sources, the employees should be appointed according to the quota system for every parliamentarian, as it was a common practice in most of the government departments.
“Every parliamentarian has the right to have a quota in various departments but there is no such quota for legislators in the FBR,” a FBR official said, seeking anonymity.
According to 15 appointment letters available with Pakistan Today, there was a difference between the joining date and the issuing date of the appointment letters.
According to sources, the dates were changed to give two months additional salaries to the newly-appointed clerks. Senior Lahore Customs Department officials refused to comment on the issue. The signatory of the letters, Lahore Customs Collector Najeebur Rehman Abbasi also refused to comment on the issue.
According to sources, after Peshawar Customs Collector Nasir Khan had rejected the hiring of the LDCs, a FBR high-up would go to Peshawar for making the appointments in the coming days. “The Peshawar collector is going to Saudi Arabia for Haj and it will give a golden chance to these people for making the appointments,” an official said.
