HARIPUR, Dec 27: Inquiry committees constituted by the Haripur district council have pointed out irregularities in appointment of teachers and sale of over 60 trees and recommended that cases in this respect should be referred to the National Accountability Bureau.

Reports of the inquiry committees were presented at a district council session presided over by its convener Riaz Jadoon. District Nazim Dr Raja Amer Zaman also attended the session.

At the last council session, Union Council Nazim Saeed Khan Abbasi and Union Council Kholian Nazim Salim Khan had demanded an inquiry into the hiring of 31 physical education teachers, 33 theology teachers, the amount raised by the education department through the sale of employment forms, selling of over 60 trees from the Curtis ground and the promotion of a clerk.

The convenor had constituted a 15-member committee to investigate the matter and submit a report to the house in the next sitting. Presenting a report on the cutting and selling of trees, committee chief UC Kholian Nazim Salim Khan said he was not provided any help by the Haripur district coordination officer, assistant coordination officer or their staff in getting access to the relevant record.

He said the district government had allowed cutting of 63 to 65 sheesham trees and shown their price as Rs46,200 while the real price, according to his estimates, was over one million rupees.

He said auction rules were not properly followed and only an advertisement was published in a Peshawar-based Urdu newspaper which had limited readership in Haripur. He said he would have personally paid three times more price for the trees had it been in his knowledge or published in a widely read local or national daily.

UC Bangra Nazim Aslam Bangra also complained of non-cooperation by the DCO office in conducting a probe into the promotion of a clerk. UC Beer Nazim Asif Ali Jah, who headed the inquiry committee to investigate teachers' hiring, told the meeting that he had obtained relevant record pertaining to the appointment of 33 theology teachers, 31 physical education teachers, four PTC female teachers and application form fee for appointment of teachers.

He said that Rs250,000 was collected from candidates as form fee at the rate of Rs55 per form but only Rs36,000 had been deposited. He pointed out certain irregularities in the appointment of teaching staff but did not give details, saying the matter was sub judice.

Syed Masood Shah, Saeed Abbasi, Malik Younus and Riaz Khan supported the inquiry reports and demanded that the matter should be referred to NAB. Chairman of the sub-committee on education, Chaudhry Irshad, on the occasion stated that teachers' appointment was supervised by a committee constituted by the provincial government and headed by the DCO Haripur.

He said when the matter of appointment of four female teachers on fake domiciles was brought to the notice of the education department, their appointments were cancelled. Speaking on the occasion, the district nazim said the promotion of his office clerk from scale five to 15 was against the rules and the decision was being reversed. The convenor adjourned the session till Dec 29.