KARACHI, Nov 23: The Sindh Service Tribunal accepted a civil servant’s appeal and quashed a major penalty awarded to him by the provincial government in 1994.

Assistant commissioner Tameezuddin Khero, then posted at Sakrand, was charged with active participation in a meeting of government employees at a Hyderabad hotel in December 1993, which condemned and protested against, in the presence of newsmen, the government decision to proceed against the officials involved in misappropriation of flood relief fund through the anti-corruption establishment. The services and general administration department held an inquiry, imposed a major penalty on him and directed that his annual increments be stopped for two years.

The tribunal, which consisted of Justice Abdul Ghani Shaikh (retired), Yusuf Ali Mirza and Nur Ahmad Shah, upheld the arguments advanced by the appellants’ counsel, Mansoorul Haq Solangi, and rejected the government plea that the appeal was time-barred. It noted that Mr Khero was punished only on the basis of his alleged signature on the attendance sheet of the participants. The appellant, however, disowned the signature and denied having attended the alleged meeting.

“We do not find anything in the sheet that a meeting of government officials was held and that it condemned the government decision to institute corruption cases. The appellant’s claim that he happened to be at Sehwan Sharif on the day the alleged meeting was held and met the deputy commissioner of Dadu was never verified by the competent authority. No action was taken against any other official who attended the alleged meeting”, the tribunal observed and allowed the appeal.