67 employees of CB Abbottabad dismissed

ABBOTTABAD: The new management of Cantonment Board Abbottabad has dismissed 67 employees appointed by the outgoing Cantonment Executive Officer (CEO) Malik Omar Farooq while removal of another 115 employees is on the cards, official sources said.
The new CEO Farasat Ali Shah, who took charge last month, has initiated steps to implement his policies.
Sources in the Cantonment Board said that the entire enforcement squad, appointed on contract basis or daily wages for revenue generation, had been sacked.
Some of the sacked employees said they were fired because they were appointed by the previous CEO and not due to their performance.
“The revenue generation has been enhanced and sanitation system improved during the tenure of previous management,” stated an employee who has been removed from his job.
Meanwhile, member of the board’s assessment and building committees Muhammad Zaman Khan has resigned in protest after levelling allegations against the department.
He pointed out that despite his objection as committee member the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Ali Asghar Khan constructed a multi-storey plaza with the connivance of the Cantonment Board staff illegally.
“On the one hand, the board has been taking action against minor violations in residential areas while on the other no action has been taken against the leader of PTI,” he said.
He added that even composition charges were not received from Ali Asghar Khan and the board was deprived of the revenue.
Zaman Khan alleged that the Alpine Hotel was another example of favouritism where another influential person had been encroaching on the nullah with the connivance of the Cantonment Board officials.
When this correspondent visited the office of CEO Farasat Ali Shah, he refused to meet or comment on the issue. However, Vice-Chairman Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto confirmed that process of removal of more than 160 employees of the Cantonment Board had been started and most of the contract employees had received termination letters.
He admitted that performance of the board in sanitation and water supply would suffer due to shortage of staff as the existing number of employees was inadequate to meet the requirements.
Sardar Zulfiqar argued that increase in population should lead to increase in the number of employees. He did not comment over the resignation of member assessment & building committees of the Cantonment Board.