K-P civil servants decry ‘NAB, ACE harassment’

PESHAWAR: A representative body of civil servants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to look into regular harassment of officers by accountability and anticorruption institutions, which condemn the accused through media even before proving them guilty.

There should be a public apology with same level of media coverage if the person arrested and subjected to media trial by anti-graft bodies proves to be innocent, the officers said.

The Provincial Civil Services Officers Association K-P chapter in its letter to PM Imran pointed out the manner in which Directorate of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM) Director Dr Abdul Samad Khan, a recipient of Presidential Award, was implicated in case of misuse of authority allegedly by a NAB officer due to a personal grudge.

Speaking on behalf of the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) and Provincial Management Services (PMS) the PCS Officers Association raised objection over the frequent arrests and harassment of civil servants in K-P by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Directorate of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).

The said institutions, NAB and ACE are marred with numerous anomalies.

Procedural lapses in routine official work are part of the job and are covered accordingly under Efficiency and Discipline Rules (E&D rules), if certain steps during recruitment, procurement, grant of NOCs and any other official work is left out or violated inadvertently without any evidence of embezzlement or nepotism it should not fall under the ambit of NAB or anticorruption.

The letter is also sent to chief ministers of the federating units, National Assembly speaker, Senate chairman and Supreme Court registrar.

E&D rules are self-contained with comprehensive mechanism to cater for such lapses.

In case of any official who are cooperating with NAB in conducting inquiry must not be harassed by arresting him before conviction as it leads to his defamation. The arrest may be made in case of conviction only.

The association also showed concern over the media trial of all such cases before conviction.

The officers also demanded public apology from the accountability institutions if the charges prove to be false so as to save the respect of the accused damaged through media trials.

The PCS Association recommended that officers who were unnecessarily grilled and suffered mental agony of defamation may have the right to seek justice in every respect.

The association also criticised the rule of putting burden of proof on the accused which was against the natural justice and needs to be corrected accordingly.

It said that federal entities may be dealt by the federal institution and provincial affairs to be strictly dealt by the provincial accountability institutions.

An officer who don’t want to be named also have raised questions over the accountability of watchdog institution’s officers and demanded an institution for their accountability and added that it has been observed that in most cases the officers are harassing other officials for personal grievances.

Source: The Express Tribune