NACTA takes ‘austerity measures’, terminates 41 interns

–Authority says termination part of PM’s austerity drive; later claims it is due to ‘administrative reasons’

ISLAMABAD: In sheer violation of the incumbent government’s policy to provide employment to youth, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) National Coordinator Mehr Khaliq Dad Lak has terminated the services of 41 internees, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Sources privy to the development told Pakistan Today that the internees were inducted after rigorous testing and interviews, as formal tests were conducted by NTS. They said that the internees’ services were hired for one year, but they were terminated after just two months of service.

They further said that while the main reason for their termination was the government’s ongoing austerity drive, it seemed quite strange that youth were being terminated from their jobs to save money.

“Upon the recommendations of the committee constituted to deliberate on the administrative issues being faced by NACTA in its meeting held on September 13, 2018, and approval by the NACTA NC, the services of the internees of NACTA are hereby terminated in pursuance of clause 12 offer of their internship date June 2018 with immediate effect,” reads the termination notice.

Among the terminated interns are Taj Muhammad, Uzair Anjum, Muhammad Husnain, Ismail Khalid, Asfandyar Khan, Anyat Hussain, Ali Basit, Irum Ali, Anwar Ali, Fahad Rasheed and others.

One of the terminated employees told Pakistan Today that they had gotten the job after following the due procedure as the posts had formally been advertised. He expressed shock over the fact that the very government, which claimed to provide jobs to millions of unemployed youngsters, had taken such a decision.

He said that they had also not been given their salaries for the past one-and-a-half-months, adding that some of them had left other jobs for the internship, but had no idea that they could be treated in such a way.

He further said that it was nothing but a waste of time to have joined the internship and feared that his and fellow colleagues’ termination might jeopardize their careers in any other organisations as well.

When asked about the reason, he said they were first told that there were some sort of budget issues, but were later told that they were terminated as a part of the PM’s austerity measures.

However, he said that later they were informed that their services had been terminated due to administrative reasons.

To a question about their future course of action, he said that they were in shock and had not taken any decisions so far but they would use all possible options to force the authority to take its decision back.

Pakistan Today tried to contact NACTA spokesperson for a comment, but he was unavailable.