KARACHI, Oct 5: The Sindh High Court on Friday restrained the provincial government from making fresh ad hoc appointments pending a petition questioning the recruitment policy.
The petition has been moved by the former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, alleging that the PML (Q) and the MQM, the ruling coalition partners, have apportioned a 50 per cent quota each to give jobs to their favourites.
While the candidates who passed the written tests and viva voce six months ago were still awaiting their appointment letters, others have been inducted through the backdoor.
The petitioner sought recruitment through the public service commission.
The respondent government was asked by Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab, who constitute the bench seized of the petition, to submit its comments. On September 20, the previous date of the hearing, the then advocate-general, Anwar Mansoor Khan, told the bench that comments were ready and would be submitted to court on the next date. No comments were filed on October 5 and the bench passed an interim restraint order.
Benazir Bhutto’s security
The Sindh High Court issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers in a petition seeking ‘foolproof’ security for PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto on her scheduled arrival in Karachi on Oct 18.
The petition has been filed by Advocate Shafqat Shah Masoomi on behalf of an NGO named ‘Human Safety Foundation’.
It has requested the court to direct the federal and the provincial authorities to take all possible measures for the protection of Ms Bhutto and her procession from the airport to Bilawal House, Clifton, via the Quaid’s mausoleum.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab directed that notices be issued to the federal and provincial attorneys.
Bail pleas adjourned
Ms Bhutto’s petition for an anticipatory bail has been adjourned by the bench to Oct 9 at the request of the Deputy Prosecutor-General of the National Accountability Bureau, Shafaat Nabi Khan Sherwani.
A Rawalpindi accountability court is seized of three cases against her. Since she had been sentenced in one of the cases for her failure to appear in court, the NAB authorities might attempt to arrest her, the petitioner said, requesting the court to grant her protective bail.
Another petition moved by the PPP’s covering presidential candidate, Nawabshah district Nazim, Faryal Talpur, has also been adjourned to Oct 9 by another division bench consisting of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo at the request of the petitioner’s counsel, Farooq H. Naek.
Notice to Pakistan
Steel management
The SHC issued a notice to the Pakistan Steel management in a petition by 11 engineers whose cases had abated before the Federal Service Tribunal.
The petitioners submitted through Advocate Abdul Razzak that the management had issued a notification in Oct 2004 to change the promotion criteria. Promotions under the notification could be ordered without the approval of the governing body.
The notification was repugnant to the terms of promotion notified in the Pakistan Steel Officers Service Rules and Regulations. The impugned notification was given retrospective effect to the detriment of the petitioners and their colleagues.
The petitioners said that they approached the Federal Service Tribunal for relief but while their appeals had still been pending, a nine-member Supreme Court bench held that they could not move the FST as they were not ‘civil servants’ in contemplation of the law. Their appeals in the FST abated and they decided to invoke the writ jurisdiction of the high court.
The petitioners alleged that they had been discriminated against by the management. According to them, several employees who were neither bachelor of engineering nor diploma holders were promoted as deputy managers. Only 8 per cent of those promoted held BE degrees. There were quite a few matriculates, FA and FSC, BA and BSC and law graduates among the newly-promoted deputy managers, they added.