KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to provincial authorities on a petition challenging the appointment of a BPS-19 bureaucrat as the deputy managing director (DMD) of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board on his Own Pay & Scale (OPS) basis.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto said the impugned notification of the appointment would be subject to the outcome of the petition.

Petitioner Irshad Khan, through his lawyer, moved the SHC stating that Rafiq Qureshi was appointed as DMD-Finance, a BPS-20 post, of the KWSB through a notification issued on April 18 in violation of the dicta laid down by the Supreme Court in its various judgements on the issue of posting on the OPS basis.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that in the light of the orders of the apex court as well as the SHC, the local government department via a notification issued on March 20 last year directed that all the notifications/orders regarding assignment of any charge on the OPS basis, additional charge and look-after charge had been cancelled / withdrawn.

He maintained that the post in question could be filled through a competitive process and not otherwise and the impugned notification issued by the Sindh chief secretary was illegal and unlawful.

The bench in its order said that it would consider whether Mr Qureshi, being an officer of BS-19 in the directorate of inspection and evaluation of the Board of Revenue, Sindh, was entitled to be posted as DMD-Finance (BPS-20) on the basis of OPS and whether his posting violated the dicta laid down by the apex court in two cases reported in 2014-15 as well as the seniority list of officers of the BoR.

The bench issued notices to the chief secretary, local government secretary and other respondents as well as the provincial law officer for next hearing to be fixed by the office after three weeks.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2022