The Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab advertised a post for the project director of new annual development project twice just to accommodate a blue eyed official, Pakistan Today has learned.
Ironically, first time the advertisement was published in print media on December 25 while the second time on February 4, job vacancy was only posted on the website of the department. Moreover, the prerequisites for the job were also changed the second time around and called a corrigendum by the department.
According to documents available with Pakistan Today, the EPD advertised the post for its new project in just two daily newspapers and ignored the country’s other large national dailies. The last date to apply for the said post was January 20 while the maximum age limit was set as between 35 to 55 years besides other relevant qualifications.
Sources in the EPD revealed that high-ups of the department did so intentionally because it was tantamount to depriving eligible and interested candidates from their right of awareness about the vacancy.
Contrary to the first advertisement in print, this time the age limit was set as 35 years to 58 years while another condition of seven years’ work experience was also added. In the second advertisement, the candidates who had applied earlier were also not allowed to submit the additional required documents.
After the corrigendum advertisement, the total number of applicant for the post was 23 from which two were shortlisted, leading to the scrutiny committee selecting Dr Javed Iqbal.
An official seeking anonymity told this scribe that the basic reason of publishing the corrigendum was to give undue favour to Dr Javed Iqbal by making him the only eligible candidate for the post. “Another reason for the corrigendum advertisement was to increase the age limit because Dr Javed Iqbal is more than 55 years”, the official said.
Dr Javed Iqbal, who had served as EPA director general (DG) and was transferred on a court order, was ineligible for the post.
For any government job, a candidate must have a clear service record. The scrutiny committee bypassed the fact that Dr Javed Iqbal was also facing an inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over his alleged involvement in embezzlement during his tenure as DG.
Sources said that the matter of scrutiny was kept a secret so that no other candidate could know the date for the interviews. “Other candidates only knew about the recruitment after the shortlisted candidates’ list was uploaded on the department’s website,” they said.
While talking to this correspondent, the EPA Labs and Implementation (ML&I) Monitoring Director Tauqeer Qureshi said that the first advertisement was published mistakenly.
When asked which paper the second advertisement was published in, instead of answering, he referred this scribe to contact EPA Implementation Deputy Director Muhammad Tahir. When contacted, the deputy director was unavailable for comment.
Pakistan Today repeatedly tried to contact EPA Spokesman Naseem ur Rehman Shah but he did not respond either.
