HYDERABAD: Thirteen newly appointed members of the Sindh Public Service Commission took oath of their office on Friday.

The oath was administered by SPC chairperson Mohammad Wasim. The members were appointed by the Sindh government through a notification issued on Thursday.

They included Rizwan Memon, Abdul Malik, Rizwan Ahmed, Mohammad Rashid, Qazi Shahid Pervez, Ubaidullah Khan, Ali Azhar Baloch, Mohammad Arif Hanif, Dr Seemin Jamali, Nusrat Hussain Mangan, Rabia Salahuddin, Muzaffar Ali Laghari and Vikram Singh Sodha.

Another member Dr Qazi Masood Ahmed would take the oath in next three to four days.

It was purely an official oath-taking ceremony after which an introductory meeting was held, said SPSC secretary Nazir Qureshi.

The reconstitution of the SPSC seemed to be a result of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-PPP ‘bonhomie’ witnessed in the wake of April’s successful no-trust motion against prime minister Imran Khan in parliament.

In the newly constituted SPSC, headquartered in Hyderabad, under a new legislation, a few members seemed to be included with MQM’s approval.

They included MPA Javed Hanif’s brother Arif Hanif, Abdul Malik Ghauri, a retired public servant, and Arshad Khan. Rizwan Ahmed is from Hyderabad. He has served as deputy commissioner Hyderabad.

The SPSC reconstituted after its five members had retired. A Sindh High Court’s judgement handed down by a division bench comprising Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and Justice Mohammad Saleem Jessar in June 2021 had suspended the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) Act 1989 (in its present form) being ultra vires to constitution and two other enactments governing the SPSC.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022