April 20, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1429

KARACHI, April 19: A tug of war over an impending wave of transfers and postings of government officials, and the distribution of funds, appears to be brewing between the Pakistan Peoples’ Party-led provincial government and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-backed city government.

As in other districts of the province, a massive reshuffle is expected soon in the officer cadre of the city government. Dawn has learnt that the newly elected provincial government is desirous of installing new chiefs in the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), the Malir Development Authority (MDA) and the Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB), in addition to posting new executive district officers (EDOs) to the revenue, finance and planning, agriculture, community development, works and services, education and other departments.

This is allowed under Section 30(2) of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001, which states that the government shall appoint officers and officials to district offices, groups of offices or to other officers in the district.

However, Section 30(6) of the ordinances states that “Where the performance of an executive district officer is not satisfactory, the Zila Nazim may, in consultation with the District Coordination Officer [DCO], request the government to transfer such officer from the district stating reasons therefore.”

The provincial government has so far undertaken only one transfer: it posted BPS-17 officer Aijaz Baloch as the district officer revenue, a BPS-18 post. Mr Baloch, who is alleged to have been involved in a land scam case and faced imprisonment, was allowed to assume charge by City Nazim Mustafa Kamal.

While confirming that the majority of city government transfers and postings under the earlier government were made in consultation with or on the recommendation of the city nazim, sources told Dawn that this trend was unlikely to continue given the installation of a new provincial government.

The sources also said that former Karachi nazim Niamatullah Khan faced tremendous difficulties stemming from the provincial government’s interference in the affairs of the city government. “Niamatullah Khan could easily have ruined many officers’ careers by entering negative comments on their annual confidential reports, but he did not do this,” said one source. “But Mustafa Kamal’s temperament is different and it would be very difficult for an ‘unwanted’ officer to continue working with him. I see the future relations between the city and provincial governments as being far from ideal.”

However, sources close to the PPP and the MQM said that the parties did not want a confrontation, and that the PPP-led provincial government would take the city nazim into confidence before undertaking any major administrative reshuffle. They added that while the nazim could not stop a senior officer from being posted to – or transferred from – a department under him, he could delay the assumption or release of office by the officer.

Niamatullah Khan speaks out

In the context of the release of funds to the city government, sources told Dawn that while the provincial government could not stop the financial grant of any approved project, it could delay the release of funds required for the execution or completion of development projects.

These sources maintained that in order to ensure smooth sailing for the Karachi city government and the district government of Hyderabad, the MQM had demanded the finance, and the planning and development departments during the power-sharing talks it held with the PPP.

Meanwhile, former city nazim Niamatullah Khan complained that several hurdles had been created for him by the then MQM-PML-Q provincial government, despite which he managed to complete his tenure successfully.

“They [the MQM ministers] took every step possible to trip me up – the then provincial minister Shoaib Bukhari wrote a letter directing the finance department to refrain from releasing city government funds,” he said. “They also posted corrupt officials to the city government, while none of the district coordination officers were given postings in line with my preferences.” He added that although he had been legally empowered to refuse to accept the postings of what he termed ‘corrupt officials’, he had chosen to avoid such a confrontation.