Former interior minister Rehman Malik and two other former officials of the ministry may land into hot waters for violating the laws by hiring 147 persons during their tenure, without due procedure—advertisements and interviews.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) probe, if initiated, can stir trouble for the former minister.
Rehman Malik served as interior minister from 2008-2013, recommended the hiring of 64 of these persons.
Khawaja Siddique Akbar, the then interior secretary, awarded jobs to 20 persons, while Syed Wajid Ali Shah, who was the DG at the Directorate General of Immigration & Passport, was the ‘recommending authority’ in 63 cases.
The Ministry of Interior on Saturday replied to MQM-P’s Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan enquiry regarding the number of employees hired for the Machine Readable Passport and Machine Readable Visa Project.
147 persons were inducted as data entry operators, printing staff and support staff for the project on daily wage basis, said official documents, adding the provincial quota was also disregarded during these hiring.
Most of the persons recruited by the ministry were from Punjab, while the remaining recruits were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Karachi and other areas but that number is negligible, documents stated.
The documents suggest a nexus of the three individuals – Malik, Akbar and Shah – in making illegal appointments.