KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday suspended the notification and the order regarding appointments of the chief executive officer (CEO) and the chief operating officer (COO) of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) till May 29.

A two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Omar Sial also expressed resentment over the water utility for submitting reply on behalf of Asadullah Khan, who had been appointed as chief operating officer of the KWSC in 2022.

It said that he should not be represented by the counsel for water utility and must engage another counsel to represent him.

Rashid Siddiqui through his counsel Khawaja Shams-ul-Islam petitioned the SHC and submitted that he was an employee of the KWSC and challenged a notification and an office order issued in 2022 and in March 2025 about the appointments of Mr Khan as COO and Ahmed Ali Siddiqui as CEO of the KWSC, respectively.

Petitioner says chief executive officer and the chief operating officer were hired unlawfully

Citing the chief secretary of Sindh, secretary of local government department, chairman of the KWSC and both the officials in question as respondents, the petitioner asserted that the local government department, through a notification issued on Sept 30, 2022, had illegally appointed Mr Khan as COO for a period of three years on contract basis since he had stood retired in May 2022.

He also argued that the re-employment of the respondent as COO was made in total violation of the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1973 and rules and the respondents did not assign any reason as to how such re-employment was in the public interest.

The petitioner further contended that Mr Siddiqui was also illegally appointed as the CEO through an office order issued on March 24, 2025 as he was admittedly an officer of BS-19/deputy commissioner East and maintained that neither he was an engineer or an employee of the KWSC and his degree was also not recognised by the Higher Education Commission.

He asserted that both the impugned appointments were made in complete defiance of Section 11 of the KWSC Act, 2023 and a judgment of the apex court in which it held that the positions in question were cadre posts and must be filled through competitive process.

Citing another judgment of the Supreme Court, the petitioner argued that the posts in the KWSC were of engineering nature and can only be filled by engineers and such provision was also applicable in the Sindh Building Control Authority, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Karachi Development Authority.

The petitioner asked the court to set aside the impugned notification and office order and also sought an interim restraining order against both officials.

Earlier, the SHC had issued notices to the respondents as well as a provincial law officer and at the last hearing, the counsel for some respondents sought more time to file counter affidavits.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2025