LAHORE - Parks and Horticulture Authority on Thursday terminated 122 illegally recruited employees from their services, sources informed The Nation. Following detection of illegal appointments in the PHA, the administration on May 6, 2008 served final notices to 199 illegally recruited employees. Out of these 199 illegally recruited employees, 77 submitted reply and requested the administration to allow them to continue their jobs. The remaining 122 employees did not even bother to reply the final notice, thus allowing the PHA to terminate their services. The officials say that the PHA was going through the replies of the remaining 77 to forge its final response towards them. In the second phase, the PHA has served final notices to 350 more employees recruited with question marks for termination from their services. The 'illegally' recruited employees have been directed to explain within seven days that why they produced fake documents and inform the administration as to who helped them in getting jobs illegally. They say that services of these illegally recruited employees would also be terminated followed by a legal action against them and their patrons in the PHA. These persons managed to sneak into the PHA by showing themselves as daily wagers and contract employees in the muster rolls. The time they picked to join the PHA was quite ideal for them when the Authority was regularising a large number of daily wagers and contract employees. In addition to fake entry at the Attendance Performa, majority of the illegally recruited employees produced forged identity cards and other documents. These fake appointments have been traced by a special committee that was looking into the regularisation of daily wagers and contract employees. According to the sources, unusual increase in the salary bill provided the administration a tip that led to the discovery of hundreds of fake names included in the list of work charge employees being prepared for the regularisation of their services. At the end of the last year, the PHA regularised daily wagers and contract employees working for the last five years. Certain elements managed to include the names of hundreds of ineligible persons in the lists of work charge employees being confirmed. Confirmation of persons not working as daily wagers and contract employees caused considerable increase in the salary bill of the PHA. The PHA high ups stopped the salaries of recently confirmed employees and constituted a three-member committee comprising the then Director Administration Zarif Satti, Director Finance Ikram Naveed and Director Marketing Muhammad Sohail to identify the culprits behind the scam.