Peshawar     -    The management of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) apparently evading the rules and regulations in the services regularisation process of around 500 contract employees, inducted in a project, while the qualified ones, who fulfil merit criteria, were totally ignored. According to some documents available with this scribe, the management of KP-TEVTA tried to use its influence in the business affair of the authority instead of following the rules and regulations. In the document it is evident that a report of a Sub-Committee of the Human Resource Committee (HRC) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (KP-TEVTA) – the main policy making body of the authority, was not presented in the 20th meeting of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the authority and despite that the forum approved regularisation of 521 employees inducted in Shaheen Technical Education and Vocational Education Training (STVET), a satellite project of Pakistan Air Force, though it was not the decision of the 24th meeting of the HR Committee. According to the documents, in the 24th and 25th meetings of the Human Resource Committee, no recommendations were made for the regularisation of the services of the emergent staff, while in the 19th and 20th meetings of the Board of Directors (BOD) the forum was allegedly misguided that the HR Committee had recommended regularisation of all the emergent employees. A letter available in the documents reveals that in this context, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Law Department also issued a letter in 2016 to STVET, objecting the entire procedure adopted for the regularisation of STVET employees, emergent staff, and declared it as illegal. A reliable source in the authority on condition of anonymity said that more than half of the total 41 inducted emergent staff belong to the chief minister’s electoral constituency in tehsil Matta of district Swat. Similarly, it is learnt that a number of alleged political cronies inducted on market-based salaries ranging from Rs200,000 to Rs300,000 per month in the KP TEVTA, for the last four years on temporary basis, are enjoying perks and privileges for which they are not entitled as per the authority’s rules. Besides, in the 20th meeting of the Board of Directors (BOD) these temporary staff were converted into regularised BPS (basic pay scale) by using its power beyond its mandate, so that these employees be entitled to get retirement benefits as well, which will ultimately violate the rights of the TEVTA’s regular employees. According to sources and available documents, in this regard a high-level committee was formed under the chairmanship of Special Secretary Industries, Commerce and Technical Education on this illegal step, which in its first meeting had declared the procedure of regularisation of STVET staff as against the rules and regulations, and declared it illegal. To take version of the authority on these alleged irregularities, this scribe tried to contact the spokesperson of KP-TEVTA on phone, but despite repeated attempts it failed to get any response of the official in this regard.