KARACHI, Nov 8: There is no stay or restraint order in the field against recruitment by the various departments of the provincial government, the Sindh High Court observed on Thursday.

The observation came on a civil miscellaneous application filed by officiating Advocate-General Masood A. Noorani in a pending petition under Section 151 of the Civil Procedures Code. The applicant government said there was no restraint order or, at least, it had not been conveyed one in the pending petition moved by former city nazim, advocate Niamatullah Khan. There was only a direction on record that the government should seek approval from the high court before making further recruitment which, too, had lapsed by the efflux of time. It requested the court to clarify the matter.

The application came up before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammed Afzal Soomro and Justice Mahmood Alam Rizvi, who examined the record and observed that there was no stay as such. The government was only asked to make recruitments with the prior approval of the court. The direction was made by a division bench on September 19 and was to remain in force until the next date of hearing, Oct 23. However, it was not extended on Oct 23 or on Oct 30, when the petition came up for hearing again.

Disposing of the application in terms of its scrutiny, the bench told the officiating AG that there was no stay in the petition.