HYDERABAD: Cash-strapped Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) on Friday relieved at least 25 officials and employees who had got themselves posted in the institution from various local councils.

Sources in the corporation say that most of the affected officials and employees have been ruling the roost in the HMC “due to their departmental, administrative and political connections” for a long time. Some were hand in glove with contractors to embezzle the institution’s resources in different ways through fake bills against different works, they say.

The HMC move seems to be in line with Sindh High Court’s directives for improving its working, considering the fact that the court had allowed posting of a new administrator only to judge officers’ performance. Otherwise, the court has restrained Sindh government from transferring officers — associated with the ongoing anti-encroachment drive — without its (the court’s) permission.

The officials who have been relieved were working in BS-1 to BS-17. The relieving orders were issued today (June 11) by newly appointed Municipal Commi­ssioner Fakhir Shakir with the approval of the administrator.

They would return to the same councils where they had given their joining.

Move sends ripples through corporation’s unwanted elements controlling its affairs

The name of Mohsin Sheikh — considered to be the most influential man during MQM mayor Tayyab Hussain’s tenure — tops the list. He got himself transferred from Hyderabad district council to the HMC as council secretary and then went on to hold additional positions of director land, director parks and PA to the mayor simultaneously.

The second name is Abdul Muqeem (BS-11) who was relieved in 2017 also but he continued to work in the HMC. He was among the 11 employees who were suspended on directives of the Supreme Court-mandated judicial commission on water and sanitation headed by retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim.

Habibur Rehman of HMC’s accounts section has also been relieved and likewise 22 other employees would join their respective parent departments.

A copy of the relieving orders has been shared with Sindh local government secretary for implementation of the directives so that they should join their departments.

HMC sources say that most of these employees were relieved in 2017 but the relevant orders were not given effect at that time. Finally, they have been relieved under the June 11 order.

The HMC, like other local councils, is currently managed through administrator, appointed by Sindh government. Sindh government has recently posted Altaf Hussain Sario, an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS), as administrator replacing Safdar Bughio, who was appointed after the HMC council headed by former mayor Tayyab Hussain completed its term.

“We have relieved around 25 employees/officials who have been invariably posted in HMC for last five to 15 years,” said Administrator Hussain.

“It’s one of those initiatives the HMC has taken to overcome its financial burden and control its expenditures. We are verifying data of more officials, maybe around 20-25,” he said.

The administrator revealed that a few officers among those who were relieved or to be relieved were “ghost employees”.

According to him, the employees actually working in other councils can draw their salaries easily from there. But the real problem is that we don’t keep a record of such employees and it needs verification of those officials/employees who got postings in HMC on the basis of departmental transfer letters. We don’t have their actual record and it is indeed hard to verify their actual service record.

According to sources, initially those employees who were supposed to serve within Hyderabad but in other local councils are being relieved. In the second phase, those who actually hail from a district other than Hyderabad would face exit.

The administrator said: “I have found that HMC’s accounts show deficit because cheques for contractual payments worth Rs40.5m have been issued. They should have, otherwise, been withheld. I have to request the bank to withhold these payments”.

He said other payments which were HMC’s liabilities also needed verification.

HMC’s salaries and pensions alone involve around Rs120m per month. It receives another monthly grant of Rs30m from Sindh government. The rest is HMC’s own receipts through various resources.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2021