An investigation into the affairs of Karachi University's public relation department revealed that the varsity had appointed retired employees on key posts without any job specification. The varsity administration neither extended the service of working ex-employees nor recruited them on contract basis, but had restored their services until next office orders.
Out of turn appointments on key slots of public relation department since many years, has caused distress among lower ranked employees for promotions in next grades due to illegal appointments. The process of unlawful recruitment in public relation section started from 2002 since after the appointment of Qazi Abdul Saleem as Public Relation Officer (PRO) and head of public relation department. Qazi Abdul Saleem was retired from Bureau of Compilation, Composition and Translation (BCC&T), which was transformed into learning institute in 2007, on September 11, 2001.
The vice chancellor through official order had appointed him as head of the department in July 2002. In the appointment letter the vice chancellor mentioned "Qazi Abdul Saleem is appointed as PRO till further orders," but the order did not mention reason for his appointment and base of his employment on the key post.
The university has provided all the facilities for performing assigned duties accurately, but he could not turned wishes into a reality. Due to prolonged illness, he could not attend the office on regular basis. The university has spent huge money for medical treatment of PRO, but all in-vain.
The administration of the university has provided him with transport facility, but he sharply extended the official service for his personal usage. The university has given him a car for movement within the premises, but it is used for providing pick and drop facility to his family. On government records, the transport service is used for providing pick and drop facility to the visiting journalists.
In the wake, when the university management is going to borrow Rs 50 million from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to release monthly salaries of employees, the PRO appointed an additional Assistant Public Relation Officer (APRO). Now, at least two APROs are working on a single post, which remained vacant since years.
According to available documents, Farheen Zehra, a graduate of English Department, appointed on November 21, but her joining date in official record is September 09, 2009. The head of department on November 26, 2009 issued a check no. 5954759 of Rs 40,000 to the female APRO without any official records. There was no official proves of her joining from September09, 2009.
Talking to Business Recorder, PRO Qazi Abdul Saleem said he was not appointed as the head of the department, illegally. He said "Dr Zafar Saeed Saifi, the vice chancellor at that time, has appointed me as PRO in July 2002 through departmental orders and it was not an unlawful recruitment at all." He rejected the reports of illegal use of transport service on the name of pick and drop service for visiting journalists. "I have no idea about the issue," PRO said. However, he refused to continue brief talks due to some problems.