Senate body for action against illegal appointments in Housing Ministry’s attached departments

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works on Thursday expressed dismay over the violation of the provincial quota in the appointments at the Housing Ministry’s attached departments and directed the Secretary Housing to take stern action against the officials involved in illegal and out of merit appointments.

The Committee, which met here with Haji Hidayatullah Khan in the chair, directed the authorities concerned that the details of the qualification, domicile, recruitment procedure and provincial quota of the recruited employees should be presented in the next meeting.

A detailed discussion was also held on the question raised in the Senate session by Bahramand Khan Tangi regarding the rental ceiling provided to employees of scale one to two. He was of the opinion that the rental ceiling of scale one to two employees was very low and it was impossible to rent a house in Islamabad and Rawalpindi within such amount. He suggested that the rental ceiling of employees of one to ten scale should be same.

The Secretary Housing said that the matter related to increase in the ceiling amount was coming under the domain of the Ministry of Finance.

Matter of Illegal allotments of plots by PHA, Federal Government Employees Housing Authority also came under discussion in the meeting.

The DG Federal Government Employees Housing Authority told that the allotment of all the plots was completed in a transparent manner by adopting the legal procedure. The Chairman of the Committee questioned that under which law the plots were allotted to the previous DGs and officers of the Authority.

The officials said that the allotment to the officers was made after approval of the Board. The Chairman of the Committee directed to investigate the matter and submit a report to the Committee.

The Pak-PWD submitted a detailed report regarding the projects and utilization of funds in Malakand Division.

The members of the Committee questioned why particular contractors were awarded contracts. He expressed serious reservations regarding the officials’ illogic not being able to provide satisfactory answer to the questions asked by the members regarding these companies. The Chairman of the Committee deferred consideration of the matter till the next meeting of the Committee.

At the outset, the Committee members expressed their reservations over the absence of the concerned minister in the meeting. The Chairman Committee informed the members that the Federal Minister was visiting his native flood-affected area in Balochistan.

The Chairman of the Committee directed the Secretary Housing to convey a message to the Minister to ensure his participation in the upcoming meetings.

Saifullah Abro, Saifullah Khan Nyazee, Khalida Ateeb, Bahramand Khan Tangi, Afnanullah Khan, Fida Muhammad, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haderi and officials of the concerned ministry attended the meeting. (APP)