Irregularities and corruption are growing within the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). The ministry has illegally reinstated two grade 20 officers and has paid them millions of rupees.
According to details, the MoST has restored Haider Zaman Khattak and Dr. Hafeez Ullah Khan after five years, in violation of courts orders and the rules of the Pakistan Science Foundation. Both the officers had been forced to retire by the entire board of the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) in 2016 for corruption and record tampering.
Khattak and Dr. Khan had approached the courts against the dismissal but had not gotten any relief from any court, including the High Court and the Supreme Court.
An incomplete board meeting of the PSF was convened and both the officers have been reinstated. Only nine out of a total of 19 members of the PSF board of trustees had attended the meeting, and three of nine members had opposed the restoration. Moreover, Dr. Khan had also received a pension through the Federal Ombudsman.
Both the officers have been reinstated after five years of forced retirement and have been paid millions of rupees by the PSF over backdated restoration benefits.
Additionally, a member of Finance PSF, the officer who refused to approve the payment, has been surrendered to the establishment division by the MoST.
Khattak and Dr. Khan were also restored in November 2018 but the Federal Secretary of the MoST, Yasmin Masood, had declared their reinstatement null and void.
When asked, officials from the PSF said that they have been restored after adopting due procedure. An inquiry was made in this regard and both have been reinstated by the PSF board.
