HYDERABAD, Oct 20: The state of affairs in the Sindhi Adabi Board has once again become muddied with resignation of its chairman in the wake of a simmering and long-drawn-out row between employees and writers over the appointment of secretary.

The government-run board has been facing crisis since the chairman quit, much to the dismay of literary circles who want differences ironed out.

This is not the first time the board face crisis. It witnessed similar conditions in 1991 when Makhdoom Talibul Moula, resigned as chairman and now his grandson Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman has quit as its head.

A former secretary of the board, Inam Shaikh, said the board lacked proper service rules. Appointments and promotions were not made under any rules or departmental promotion committee, he said.

He said that appointments made on the basis of favouritism and political affiliation had overburdened the board's budget and created a vested interest. Certain groups of employees are engaged in conspiracies and plundering funds. They also misguided the secretary to their benefit, he said.

The board has 70 employees and experts believe many of them are surplus.

The number of employees used to be 92 in past. Later, 36 were declared surplus and absorbed in education department. But, 20 people were again appointed in the board.

Mr Sheikh said the board needed only 25 employees to run its affairs. But according to a renowned writer who has experience running his own publication house for years, only 10 can efficiently run the board.

Ali Nawaz Ghanghro of Roshni Publications said the board, with such a huge staff, machinery and funds at its disposal, had published 650 books in 69 years, while he had published 900 books in 25 years with only one employee.

Mr Sheikh believes the main problem is corruption and appointment of incompetent people in the board. Expenditure in the name of earthwork of parks, maintenance of buildings and heavy TA, DA had overburdened the board's budget, he said.

The board receives an annual grant of Rs20 million. Its salary bill is Rs2.3 million and Rs6 to 7 million are needed to meet other expenses. The board has four vehicles.

The row started when employees and board secretary Zawar Naqvi confronted each other a few months ago and the employees physically took possession of the board and stopped the secretary from entering his office for two months. Accounts officer A.D. Vighio was given temporary charge of the secretary during that period.

The Sindhi Adabi Sangat has launched a drive to get a writer appointed to this post.

The reconstituted board of governors of the board discussed four names for the post at its first meeting in which employees seconded A.D. Vighio and the standing committee led by Inayat Baloch proposed name of a retired secretary Shams Jafrani, which angered employees. They stopped work in protest and observed a strike.

Hafiz Indhar, president of the employees union, said in case secretary was brought from outside, the board would have to bear Rs150,000 per month additionally but in case the secretary was made from among the employees, this amount could be saved.

He alleged that the standing committee appointed two editors for a salary of Rs70,000 each and the employees had to bear the brunt of its decision because the board had limited resources.

He said the chairman held a meeting with general secretary of Sindhi Adabi Sangat Mushtaq Phul to defuse the row and Phul presented to him a long list of demands, mainly demanding an inquiry into alleged corrupt practices.

Hafiz Indhar said that employees would welcome the inquiry and said when former secretaries committed malpractices no one pointed fingers at them. Today, every one was talking about corruption of former secretary Aijaz Mangi but no one raised voice when he ran affairs although majority of the board members were the same, he said.

At a recent meeting, the board decided that secretary of education would hold additional charge of the board's secretary and Nazar Mohammed Gaho, political secretary to chief minister would look after its financial affairs while an inquiry was carried out into corruption charges. It was not mentioned as to who would conduct the inquiry.

The board, a brainchild of Sindhi nationalist leader G.M. Syed, was formed in 1940 to promote Sindhi literature. G.M. Syed was provincial education minister at that time. Later, it was redesigned and renowned writers and scholars were appointed to head the institution.

Some officials said the manipulation of funds allocated for different projects had created mess in the board.

The projects included publication of more books, translation of texts, designing of website and uploading of books printed by the board onto the Internet. None of the projects have been completed and they have reportedly come to halt because of corruption.

A former board secretary said that if petty politics continued the board would not be able to do any constructive work. Serious efforts were required to run the institution, he added.