Crisis of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Daily Wage Employees in Sports Directorate: Free Labor, Verbal Dismissals, and Nepotism

 

Peshawar: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Sports Directorate is now in jeopardy concerning not dozens but hundreds of daily wage staff members who are entangled in a maze of uncertainty, disrespect, and mismanagement. Over 300 coaches, security personnel, Class IV staff, and other staff members working in different offices are being let go by the end of June 2025. These include staff members who worked for an entire year without salaries in 2023–24.

At least 22 workers have secured stay orders from the court, which bars the Directorate from terminating their service legally. These workers argue that they have been working for more than a decade but were being sacked annually without any written contract. Shockingly, in the 2023–24 fiscal year, these daily wage laborers were forced to work a whole year without any remuneration.

In the previous financial year, the official wage for employees by the day was fixed at PKR 36,000, but only PKR 32,000 was disbursed in the first two months. The remaining PKR 8,000 was vowed but not paid. Likewise, coaches as well as Class IV staff received the same remuneration, even though most of the coaches are highly trained and professional.

Most of the coaches and daily wage workers are given strenuous tasks, while certain officers' pet individuals have cozy conditions in air-conditioned offices. Others are even provided with "nominal appointments" and drawn salaries without performing any work. They don't receive either appointment letters or written termination orders; all is done verbally.

Some permanent staff, recruited as Class IV or security personnel, have been found working at the residences of officers. They are accommodated, receive their salaries, as well as electricity and gas charges, from the Provincial Sports Directorate.

Some of the daily wage workers were appointed on political grounds, never attending to the institution or undertaking any work but availing salaries regularly. There are also workers who are deployed at other government offices but work here without a No Objection Certificate (NOC). Some permanent workers act as sports in-charges at schools in the morning and come over here in the afternoon.

Some directors in the Provincial Sports Directorate have intentionally caused an artificial shortage of staff by assigning permanent personnel to the Imran Khan Cricket Stadium, despite this stadium not yet being taken over by the Provincial Sports Directorate. Contractors are responsible for cleaning, maintenance, and other jobs at the stadium, but government employees are being employed there.

Earlier, dismissed employees every year were retained on without honorarium, some were silenced with PKR 50,000, while others were usurped of their rights by being entered into unknown persons' accounts. All this started under the tenure of DG Khalid Mehmood, where the favored ones in the institution were given complete protection while others suffered injustice.

Recent news suggests that in spite of being sent termination notices, most coaches have been called in to report for work and told they haven't been fired. The issue is, if they are daily wage workers, why are they being sent in to work without formal notification? Is this an attempt to let them down after a few months and fire them again?

 

This whole scenario is a big challenge for the new Director General. They need to see this issue in their own eyes, as certain people tend to dictate the story to incoming DGs and use it to benefit themselves. In all sports complexes and offices, there are sycophants and powerholders actively attempting to influence officers into appointing relatives and friends. The current regime seems to be having difficulty controlling this scenario.

This crisis is not only administrative negligence but a flagrant attack on human dignity, labor legislation, and public financial norms. If the Sports Directorate is really interested in catering to sports and players, it should first stop its in-house games.

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