In violation of regulations, Lok Virsa Executive Director (ED) Khalid Javaid promoted a researcher, Zobia Sultana- who was hired two years ago on contractual bases- from BPS-17 to BPS-18 and made her a permanent employee. Javaid did this without the approval from the Ministry of Information and without fulfilling procedural formalities. Sultana had initially been engaged as a researcher on an assignment contract in November 2009 and was given the post of programme executive research after a few months.
Government regulations stipulate that an acting or officiating charge can only be granted to a regular or permanent employee (whose name must already be on the seniority list) and not a contractual employee, as was done in case of Sultana. Moreover, the Lok Virsa ED does not have the powers to engage or appoint any individual on the regular BPS 17 and above posts, even on contractual basis as this authority lies only with the secretary of information. The record reveals that Sultana’s appointment had been made directly by the ED, in sheer defiance of regulations, and that too without fulfilling the laid down criteria, which includes advertising the post in national dailies.
A Lok Virsa official, wishing not to be named, disclosed that the ED had asked the secretary of information in July to regularise Sultana’s services from her initial temporary engagement in November 2009. The official also said that misleading details about Sultana’s profile and experience had been provided to the secretary of information by the ED.
The Lok Virsa official also revealed that Sultana had been given a number of undue privileges such as an air conditioned office (which was previously used by a BPS-19 official), and the services of a PA as well as five other employees.
The official further said that a sum of Rs 20,000 was paid to Sultana monthly for the so called “supervision” of the newly established National Database Centre, whereas the centre was actually run by an IT employee hired on contract. Employees at Lok Virsa told Pakistan Today that they believed that the ED’s undue projection of Sultana was an attempt on his part to promote her to the director of research post “by hook or crook”. Khalid Javaid said Lok Virsa had revived its erstwhile “paralysed” research section in the last few years, and had hired Sultana in this regard. “In 2009 when senior researcher Anwaar Mohyuddin resigned, there was no one left to take up and execute research assignments so I requested the dean of the Anthropology Department at Quaid-e-Azam University, to recommend qualified PhD students to fill the gap of a regular officer.”
The ED admitted that Sultana had been appointed on contractual basis against the vacant post of researcher in 2009, however he said during the period of her contract, Sultana had performed exceptionally well in carrying out important research assignments. “Therefore in view of her qualification, professional experience and above all, the work she put in at Lok Virsa as a contractual officer in the research section, I’ve requested the information ministry to regularise Sultana against the available post of deputy director (BPS-18),” Javaid said.
Lok Virsa ED defies regulations in appointing BPS 18 official
