PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday tabled a bill in the provincial assembly for terminating the services of thousands of employees recruited by the last caretaker government in the province.
“It is desirable to declare the appointment of certain employees, as unlawfully, made by various departments of the government of KP through initial recruitment, during the tenure of caretaker government in the best interest of the government,” reads the bill, which was tabled by revenue minister Nazir Ahmad Abbasi during a session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
Section 2(c) of the bill says, “Employee means any employee, appointed through initial recruitment, by various departments, against regular posts from Jan 22, 2023, to Feb 29, 2024, except employees appointed following court orders, deceased sons, KP public service commission, minority quota or in case where tests and interviews were conducted before Jan 22, 2023.”
Section 3 of the bill reads that the employees unlawfully recruited would be deemed to have never been appointed and their appointments were hereby declared to be void.
PA demands withdrawal of Peca Act amendments, Digital Pakistan Bill
It added that unlawfully recruited meant any appointment, which was made in contravention of Section 230 of the Election Act, 2017, and the instructions of the Election Commission of Pakistan.”
The proposed law also said that in case of any difficulties, the bill, which also had proposed a committee to be headed by the establishment secretary, in giving effect to any of the provisions of the act, would be referred to the committee for consideration.
“The decision of the committee with regards to implementation of this [proposed] Act or any of the difficulty associated therewith shall be final and binding and shall be given effect by the concerned department accordingly.”
The finance department is understood to have put the number of such employees at 9,662, with around 4,000 recruited in the police department,2,500 in elementary and secondary education department,and 200 each in local government, public health engineering, irrigation, communication and works, and health departments.
Also in the session, the government proposed to raise a regulatory force for “effective enforcement of regulatory laws, investigation of regulatory offences and bringing offenders before the courts of law.”
The KP Regulatory Force Bill, 2025, moved by Mr Abbasi, read that a person appointed as a regulatory force official would have all the powers conferred on police officers under the code and such other powers as may be conferred by this Act or rules.
“The regulatory force, which will have a separate uniform, will be headed by a director general who will be posted by the chief minister for a three-year term, the bill read adding that deputy commissioner of the concerned district will lead the force on district level as ex-officio chief regulatory force officer.”
The minister, who also moved the KP Public Financial Management Amendment Bill, 2025, faced resistance from PPP’s Ahmad Karim Kundi, who requested the chair to send the proposed changes to the relevant committee for consideration.
He insisted that the bill went against the Constitution as the government wanted to empower the finance department for releasing and authorising funds.
The opposition lawmaker said the bill should be referred to the house’s select committee for discussion.
The minister said the house could discussthe opposition’s objections to the bill. He also tabled the KP Shariah Nizam-i-Adl Regulation Amendment Bill, 2025, Code of Criminal Procedure KP Amendment Bill, 2025, and KP Agriculture Income Tax Bill, 2025.
The assembly unanimously passed a resolution against amendments to the Peca Act, and Digital Pakistan Bill and saidit showed solidarity with the journalist community on the matter.
The resolution, tabled by MPA Shafiullah Jan, demanded withdrawal of the “unconstitutional” amendments to Peca Act, and Digital Pakistan Bill.
On a calling attention, MPA Taj Mohammad Khan said the provincial government received 10 per cent in heads of royalty from the federal government on gas, hydel power, tobacco cess and oil and 10 per cent of the amount, meant for the relevant districts for welfare projects, wasn’t not paid and instead, the finance department “unjustly” used it for other purposes.
MPA Akbar Ayub complained that the provincial government owed Rs13 billion to Swabi, Haripur and Mansehra districts and Rs18 billion to oil and gas producing districts. He requested the chair to refer the matter to the relevant committee for discussion and recommendation.
Law minister Aftab Alam Afridi said royalty had gone up from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. He said the calling attention notice should be sent to the relevant committee.
Mr Kundi said the country’s daily oil production was 90,000 barrels, with KP alone producing 50,000barrels per day.
“Our province has been treated unfairly for years but I don’t know why the constitutional forums are not being used for pleading the province’s financial cases,” he said.
The lawmaker insisted the funds from Accelerated Implementation Programme for merged tribal districts were spent in settled districts.
Law minister Afridi said that the provincial government had writtenaround 15 letters to the centre for holding a meeting of the Council of Common Interests to discuss its issues, but the request had yet to be accepted.
He said the federal government was bound by the Constitution to hold CCI meetings after every 90 days.
The chair later adjourned the session until 2pm next Monday.
Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2025
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.