ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) was told on Wednesday that 2,292 vacancies under the Sanction of New Employments (SNEs) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) would be prioritised and filled soon.
The finance secretary of the FATA Secretariat told the committee, which held its meeting at the Parliament House under the chair of Senator Hilalur Rehman, that the previously held meeting of the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Ministry, Finance Ministry and FATA Secretariat had decided to prioritise and fill 2,292 vacancies under the Sanction of New Employments (SNEs), while the remaining seats out of more than 5,500 SNEs would be taken up later, as it was not feasible to consider all piled up SNEs at once.
Senator Sajjad Hussain Turi, Senator Aurangzeb, Senator Khanzada Khan, Senator Sitara Ayaz, State Minister for SAFRON Ghalib Khan, SAFRON secretary, FATA Secretariat finance secretary, Tribal Electric Supply Company (TESCO) Chief Executive Officer Dr Zakaullah Khan and FATA Project director general attended the meeting.
The 2,292 vacancies include 824 seats from educational sector, 616 from health sector and others in various areas including archeology, transport, minerals, water, archives, housing, etc.
The committee also discussed the criteria for the recent appointments to the TESCO. The TESCO CEO told the committee that the company had low financial viability and hence only 38 vacancies were approved and advertised against 300 required posts.
He said that it was mentioned that the people with FATA domicile would be given preference and 18 out of 38 selected people were from FATA. The committee expressed its concerns over low number of recruitment of the people actually belonging to FATA and stressed upon the need to properly follow the Civil Establishment (ESTA) code, which states that local people should be given preference. The committee decided to summon representatives of the Establishment Division and the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) secretary in the next meeting.
The committee was also told that the FATA Secretariat was following Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s policy for pay packages of regular employees, while the federal government’s policy was being followed for pay packages of contractual employees. The finance secretary said that salaries of employees were not stopped but there was some delay in determining rate of increments.
He told the meeting that the FATA Development Corporation was established in 1970 for development of tribal areas but it became a defunct organisation and was closed in 2002 due to rising number of complaints. In 2002, the FATA Secretariat took over the control of areas which were previously under the FATA Development Corporation.
The meeting was told that 35 schemes initiated by the FATA DC were merged with FATA Secretariat after 2002 and work on none of them was halted.
It was also shared that money which was in the accounts of FATA DC in 2002 was later used to pay compensation and salaries/pensions to employees who were still serving in FATA.
The committee was also given a briefing on the percentage of local staff belonging to FATA hired by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in FATA in coordination with the United Nations. The Committee expressed satisfaction over the percentage which was stated to be 58%.
Published in Daily Times, October 18th 2017.
