PESHAWAR: After refusing to give in to the pressure of the Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and the political elite over the posting of a junior officer as director general Agriculture Extension, a senior bureaucrat serving as secretary agriculture has asked the chief secretary to relieve him of the charge in the province.
Secretary Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperative Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Jamil Ahmed has sent a note to the chief secretary under the subject “Use of Extraneous Pressure for Posting as Director General Agriculture Extension” pointing out that Speaker provincial assembly (Asad Qaiser) has expressed annoyance over his refusal to post a junior officer of the department as director general (DG) Agriculture Extension.
In his note, Jamil Ahmed (PAS BS-21) mentioned that despite being junior in seniority list, Qayash Bahadur (BS-19), district director Agriculture Extension, was given the additional charge as DG Agriculture Extension.
Finding this against the rules, he was relieved of the additional charge and senior officer Iqbal Hussain (BS-19) was assigned to look after the post of the DG.
The note, the copy of which is available with Media, stated that the Provincial Selection Board (PSB) at its meeting on May 10 also recommended the senior most BS-19 officers be posted against the two vacant posts, DG Agriculture Extension and Principal Agriculture Training Institute.
The promotion of Iqbal Hussain and Muhammad Naseem was notified accordingly and a summary for the posting of the promoted officers was moved, recommending the most senior (Iqbal Hussain) as DG Agriculture Extension.
However, in his note, the secretary agriculture informed the chief secretary that since removal as DG Agriculture Extension, Qayash Bahadur was exerting undue pressure “from the highest political authorities in the province for posting him as DG Agriculture Extension, which cannot be considered under the rules and provincial government’s policy.
Today (August 18), honourable speaker expressed annoyance over the matter.”The secretary agriculture’s note also carried a litany of irregularities, which included the inequitable distribution of free seed that resulted in low wheat production and loss of millions to the provincial exchequer.
It said the officer (Qayash Bahadur) violated the criteria for eligibility for beneficiaries and free seed was distributed to the undeserving persons and 3,135 bags of quality seed remained undistributed.
The secretary agriculture alleged that the government evacuated unlawful occupants from the government seed farm measuring 372 acres and despite the instructions from the high-ups, the land was left unattended in collusion with the land grabbers during his (Qayash Bahadur’s) tenure only to facilitate the grabbing of the prized land. It said this caused a loss of Rs35 million to the exchequer.The secretary’s note also pointed out that the produce of the evacuated land was shown “handed over” to a madrassa.
The secretary said that in view of the tremendous pressure, the matter is brought in the notice of the chief secretary to consider his sparability as requested by the Establishment Division Islamabad or advise as deemed appropriate.The chief secretary has forwarded the matter to the secretary establishment to examine and a decision on this is expected to be taken in a day or two.
