HYDERABAD: Another major administrative anomaly has surfaced within the top tier of the Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Corporation (HWSC), where its chief human resource officer has been identified as a low-grade employee of the Sindh government’s population welfare department.
Neither the Hyderabad mayor, who chairs the HWSC Board of Directors (BoD) by virtue of his office, nor the corporation’s management had verified the service credentials of its officers over the past year until the matter recently came to light.
The HR chief, Naeem Shoro, was appointed to the corporation on April 3, 2025 on a lucrative monthly salary package of Rs400,000, inclusive of all perks and privileges but excluding a vehicle, fuel and additional medical coverage. However, records seen by this correspondent reveal that he has also been employed for the past 12 to 13 years as a lower-scale worker for the provincial population welfare department, stationed in Hyderabad.
“He is understood to be a male social mobiliser in the population department,” said an official familiar with his background. “His service file is unavailable at the population department in Hyderabad and is being purposely kept elsewhere.”
Records show he still serves as a lower-scale worker of population welfare department
The HWSC management either remained genuinely unaware of the anomaly or intentionally covered it up. The situation indicates that the corporation is being managed mysteriously, while public service delivery has seen no noticeable improvement in the city, Latifabad, and Qasimabad talukas, where drinking water shortages are worsening.
Corporation sources revealed that Mr Shoro had applied for the HWSC position by presenting himself as an employee of a private refrigerator and deep-freezer manufacturing factory in Hyderabad. He would otherwise have been ineligible to apply under the criteria advertised by the government when the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) was upgraded to the HWSC.
In June 2026, he drew a salary of Rs44,160 from the population welfare department, whilst simultaneously receiving an HWSC salary equivalent to that of a senior BS-19 provincial officer. Even a senior BS-18 civil servant does not draw Rs400,000.
It appears that following his corporate appointment, he failed to resign from his government post, drawing two salaries in blatant violation of the Sindh government service rules. Mr Shoro did not respond to repeated phone calls, text messages and audio messages seeking his viewpoint over the past three days.
During a recent BoD meeting, a proposal for raise in salaries of HR chief and Chief Executive Officer was to be tabled but only CEO’s item was taken up and deferred by board members, who maintained that even CEO’s performance indicators must be evaluated first. Shoro’s proposal was dropped.
When contacted on Wednesday regarding the HR chief’s dual employment, HWSC Chief Executive Officer Tufail Abro told Dawn that he had now seen a pay slip confirming Mr Shoro has been employed by the population welfare department for 13 years — a fact he concealed upon joining the corporation.
“He has concealed this fact, and we will certainly present the matter before the HWSC board shortly,” Mr Abro said. Addressing the proposed pay rise, the CEO added that management officers wanted salaries on par with their counterparts at the Sukkur Corporation, subject to board approval.
Since its inception, the HWSC has been run by an entirely new cohort of officers recruited through a competitive process over the last two years.
Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026
