KARACHI: City govt officials’ reshuffle invokes skepticism
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 14: Sudden transfers, postings and promotions of a number of city government officials by the provincial government, in the absence of the city Nazim, have created unrest among the employees of the city district government.
According to a notification by Sindh chief secretary on Monday, issued just one day after the city Nazim left for China to attend an international conference of mayors, an additional director (land) of defunct KDA, Masood Jaffery, an officer of BS-18, has been transferred and posted as district officer (Land), city district government, with immediate effect.
The DO (Land), CDGK, Ather Hussain has been made officer on special duty.
Another officer of BS-17, Tauseef Zafar, who was currently working as deputy district officer (Human Resource Management), CDGK, has been promoted as district officer (HRM), on the retirement of Qurban Ali Jaferry, and as such the post of CDGK’s HRM department’s DDO, has been filled by DDO (BS-17), Ehtesham Kamal.
Similarly, city district government’s legal department’s district officer (BS-18), Saeed Akhtar, has been transferred and posted as district officer-II, E&P, city district government, against an existing vacancy.
An officer of BS-19, Mohammad Iqbal Khan, who was awaiting posting, has been posted as district officer (Parks and Horticulture), city district government, in place of Liaquat Ali, who upon his transfer has been directed to report to Sindh local government and Katchi Abadis department.
District officer (Law), city district government, Zahid Najeeb, has been transferred and posted as district officer in the city government’s education department against an existing vacancy.
Expressing concern over such abrupt transfers and postings, sources in the CDGK, said that it was amazing to note that all such transfers and postings had been made by the provincial chief secretary at a time when the city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, who is also administrative head of the city government, is abroad.
Asked if the City Nazim secretariat has been intimated regarding the transfers and postings, the sources said that the City Nazim has neither been consulted nor apprised of the decisions.
Arguing that it was not under the purview of the provincial government to order such transfers and postings, the sources said that except for Mohammad Iqbal Khan, who belonged to the district management group, all other officials, transferred and posted by the Sindh government, belonged to the defunct KMC service and as such their transfers and postings were a prerogative of the city Nazim.
The sources apprehended that the transfers of the CDGK’s officers, particularly of those belonging to its Land and Parks/ Horticulture departments, might be an attempt to influence the investigations, currently underway, in connection with land scams pertaining to Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s ST plots and a big chunk of land, situated at Muslimabad, as the officials were playing a key role in these inquiries.
