Islamabad - Islamabad High Court issued notices to the respondents in a petition moved against collection of test fees from candidates of different positions at National Accountability Bureau.
A single bench of the IHC comprising Justice Aamir Farooq heard the petition moved by Rashid Mahmood, a job seeker, and issued notices to the NAB and NTS chairmen.
Talking to The Nation, Yasir Chaudhary, counsel for the plaintiff, said that the court had also directed the respondents to submit their replies in the matter.
The petitioner has made the chairmen of NAB and the National Testing Service as respondents. Rashid stated in his petition that he was an educated, young and jobless citizen.
He said that the NAB had advertised several positions and asked the candidates to deposit Rs150 as test fee for each post.
He told the court that he wanted to apply for the posts of lower division clerk, upper division clerk, data entry operator and others and was thus compelled to deposit the required amount to appear in the test and interview.
He said that he was unemployed and it was difficult for him to pay the requisite test fees to the NTS. The petitioner said that recruitment test for vacant posts in NAB had become a source of income for the NTS. This is an example of exploitation of unemployed youth in the hands of respondents, he pleaded to the court.
“The petitioner and other unemployed candidates who are aspirants to join the NAB have to deposit multiple test fees if they apply for more than one posts,” maintained the petitioner. He contended that the NTS was a private body, how come such important jobs in NAB were handed over to it for filling. The NTS has no authority to conduct recruitment in the NAB, the petitioner submitted.
The petitioner argued that it was unfair that the petitioner and other candidates were forced to pay the so-called test fees throughout the year for different posts and then, at the end, just know that they had been dropped.
Therefore, Rashid prayed to the court that collection of NTS fee from candidates of different posts in NAB might be declared as illegal and recruitment though NTS might be suspended in the light of a Lahore High Court (LHC) judgment.
He also requested the court that chairman NAB might also be directed to conduct the job tests through own teams instead of involving the NTS or any other private entity.