KARACHI, Sept 29: Despite a requirement under the rules, the city district government Karachi’s (CDGK) failure to compile the combined seniority list of an estimated 100,000 officials working in the body’s different offices since its inception in 2001 is causing great frustration and resentment, Dawn has learnt.
The rules make it mandatory for the CDGK to issue such a list every January for the purpose of inviting objections, and then display an updated seniority list at a prominent place in February. However, the CDGK has not issued a combined list and neither have any of its 16 group of offices issued a seniority list of their officials.
During the tenure of the former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, however, two of the CDGK’s group of offices – the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) – managed to convene meetings of their departments after issuing seniority lists of their officers.
The annual issuance of seniority lists regarding all CDGK officials is mandatory because departmental promotion committees make merit-based recommendations in accordance with the lists. This ensures transparency in the promotion process.
Asked whether the CDGK had ever issued any combined seniority lists, Javaid Hanif, Karachi’s district coordination officer (DCO), replied in the negative. He commented that the task was impossible until all cadres, such as the now defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), medical services and other decentralised departments, were merged by the government.
Mr Hanif disclosed that he had recently circulated a letter among all executive district officers (EDOs) directing them to prepare seniority lists of officials in their groups of offices. This process is under way, he stated.
Out-of-turn promotions
Sources within the CDGK told Dawn that in the absence of the seniority lists, the majority of officials had been deprived of promotion since 2001. Meanwhile, they said, hundreds of officials enjoying political clout had managed to get out-of-turn promotions without even seeking the recommendation of the departmental promotion committee.
“It’s ironic that a CDGK district officer who was promoted to Grade-18 in 1984 is still in the same grade while other officials, who were inducted into either the KMC or the KDA in 1988, have managed to get promoted to Grade-18 or even -19,” remarked an aggrieved officer.
Sources cite Khaleeq Ahmed’s case as a recent example of rapid, out-of-turn promotion. Mr Ahmed joined the KWSB in 1988/89 in Grade-17, has reportedly now been promoted to Grade-19 and has also been made the secretary of the utility’s board, which has ceased to exist for all practical purposes since it has not met since 2001.
“With Mr Ahmed’s promotion, at least four Grade-18 officials of the KWSB’s revenue and administration departments, who joined several years before him, have now become his subordinates,” said the sources. They added that despite having remained abroad for several years after 1992, Mr Ahmed had not only had himself reinstated a couple of years ago but had also received financial benefits amounting to an estimated Rs2 million and a promotion.
Seniority lists of district coordination officers (DCOs) and executive district officers (EDOs) are maintained by the provincial governments concerned. The DCO performs as a coordinating head of the district administration and is appointed by the government from Grade 20 or -21 civil servants of the federation or the province. Most of the CDGK’s EDOs are appointed by the provincial government from amongst the officers of the PCS or DMG groups.
