October 22, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 22, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 21: The Sindh High Court gave the provincial government and its education department four weeks to issue posting letters to 239 college teachers or specify reasons for its failure to comply.

Three hundred and sixty-five male and female lecturers were selected by the Sindh Public Service Commission out of 650 candidates who applied for the vacancies in response to an advertisement in June 2005. The candidates were interviewed and the successful ones among them were recommended by the SPSC in 2006.

They were issued ‘offer’ letters and all the successful candidates signified their acceptance. They underwent medical check-ups and were issued verification letters by the area police. Even a posting schedule was issued and a summary was forwarded to the chief minister for its approval by the education and literacy department.

Two hundred and thirty-nine of the appointees from 27 districts approached the high court when the posting orders were inordinately delayed. Meanwhile, the department re-advertised the vacancies but the court, at the request of the petitioners, restrained it from making fresh recruitment to vacancies already filled.

In his arguments on behalf of the petitioners, Advocate Shua-un-Nabi submitted that the petitioners had acquired a vested right, particularly after the issuance of ‘offer’ letters and their acceptance. Eleven of the 365 selected candidates had been issued posting letters and the government was following a pick-and-choose policy in disregard of the SPSC recommendations and the petitioners’ vested right, which they cannot be deprived of.

The counsel also referred to the identical case of 91 lecturers wherein the high court ordered their posting and held that they would be become entitled to receive their salaries if the government failed to post them or state reasons for not doing so. He also alluded to the court’s decision in the prosecutors’ case and contended that after a reported decision of the provincial cabinet, the ministers in-charge had been duly authorised to run their departments and there was no need to move ‘summaries’ to the chief minister.

Justices Khilji Arif Hussain and Dr Qamaruddin Bohra, who constituted the division bench finally seized of the petition, asked the government to fulfil the commitment made by it by issuing ‘offer’ letters or state reasons for not following them up with posting orders within four weeks.

Fatima Jinnah’s estate

The hearing of a plaint involving the administration of the estate of Miss Fatima Jinnah, sister of the Quaid-i-Azam, was on Tuesday adjourned to Nov 18. Claiming to be descendants of the Quaid’s cousins, Shakir Amir Ali and other plaintiffs instituted a suit after the death of Ms Shirin Jinnah for inheritance of the property left behind by him and his sisters. A single judge, since retired, held that the Jinnah family subscribed to the Shia personal law and dismissed the suit. An appellate bench, however, remanded the case for re-hearing by a single judge in 1985.

As the suit came up before Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui on Tuesday, Advocate Khwaja Shamsul Islam argued on behalf of the plaintiffs that the Sunni personal law should be applied to the property as there was no evidence of the Quaid following the Asna Ashri personal law.

Representing the defendant Shirin Jinnah Trust, Advocate Yawar Farooqui produced a succession petition filed by Ms Fatima Jinnah for succession to the Quaid’s estate in 1948 through Advocate Kotwal. Ms Jinnah affirmed her and the Quaid’s adherence to the Shia personal law and sought to inherit his property.