KARACHI, Sept 5: The Sindh High Court issued on Wednesday fresh notices to federal ministers Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and Rao Sikandar Iqbal Khan in a petition moved by Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto against registration of its splinter groups as ‘the PPP’ by the Election Commission.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab, issued fresh notices to the respondent federal ministers for Sept 18. The attorney-general was asked to appear himself or depute Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan A. Siddiqui to assist the court.

Ms Bhutto submitted through Advocate Farooq H. Naek that the PPP was an old party with a long struggle for people’s rights. However, two groups claiming to be PPP (Sherpao Group) and PPP (Patriots) merged in 2002 and sought registration as the PPP. The Election Commission obliged them without hearing her or issuing a notice to her party. She requested the court to set aside the Election Commission’s order and restrain the two groups from using the name and nomenclature of the PPP.

In its reply, the Election Commission submitted that no party by the name of PPP was registered under the Political Parties Order, 2002, or the Election Order of that year. It was approached by the PPP (Sherpao) and the PPP (Patriots) for joint registration as the PPP. Since they fulfilled the legal requirements and there was no other PPP in the field under the two orders, their request was granted.

Appointment of lecturers

The Sindh High Court directed the provincial government to appoint lecturers selected by the Sindh Public Service Commission within a month.

Forty-nine petitioners submitted through Advocate Syed Shua-un-Nabi that they had applied for appointment as lecturers in different subjects in response to an advertisement put out by the SPSC in June 2005. They had appeared in a written test and a viva voce examination conducted by the commission. Out of a large number of candidates, 91 candidates had qualified and had been recommended for appointment. However, they had not been issued appointment letters by the education department.

The department said in its comments that it moved a summary for appointment of all successful candidates in April 2006 for consideration of Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. No action was, however, taken by the provincial chief executive and the department was still awaiting his approval.

Observing that the government service was not a personal fief of any functionary, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab ordered that action should be taken on the education department summary within a month, failing which the successful candidates would be deemed to have been appointed.

Contempt case

Another division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Athar Saeed, issued a show cause notice to the Central Revenue Board Chairman Abdullah Yusuf for not complying with a court order in respect of the promotion of five senior auditors of the sales tax directorate. The court had ordered the chairman in December 2006 to consider the auditors for promotion as assistant directors. However, nine officials junior to the petitioners were promoted last month while their cases remained pending. The chairman was issued a notice for Sept 18 to show cause why he should not be proceeded against for contempt.