KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday extended its earlier restraining order to prevent the Sindh government from making appointments in its over 140 departments, and autonomous and other bodies on a lawsuit filed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan.

The MQM-P contended in its lawsuit filed on Aug 8 that the then provincial government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), its secretaries, departments, autonomous bodies etc., had unleashed a mala fide and unlawful campaign to fill thousands of vacancies without observing formalities by way of pre-poll rigging. It alleged that the government jobs were dished out to favourites and blue-eyed ones.

When a single-judge bench headed by Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput took up the matter for hearing on Monday, the counsel for one of the defendants filed a counter affidavit to an application filed earlier by the plaintiff against the alleged recruitments despite the stay order.

A copy of the counter affidavit was provided to the plaintiff’s lawyer, who appeared on behalf of Dr Farogh Naseem. The counsel sought adjournment on the ground that Dr Naseem was busy before the Islamabad High Court.

“Adjourned to 13.11.2023 to be taken up at 11:30 a.m. Interim order passed earlier shall continue till the next date of hearing,” the bench in its order stated.

At a previous hearing, almost all the defendant departments and autonomous bodies had filed statements in the light of a court order and stated that all recruitment processes had been suspended, advertisements withdrawn and no appointment had been made between June and August after the SHC issued a restraining order in August.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023