KARACHI, Feb 27: The Sindh High Court on Monday issued notices to the Sindh chief secretary and the board of revenue in a petition of a former Pakistan People’s Party leader and MNA Zafar Ali Shah against the direct appointment of assistant commissioners and promotions of other revenue officers.
A division bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab also put the advocate general on notice and adjourned the hearing to a date to be later announced by the court’s office.
The petitioner, represented by Advocate Haq Nawaz Talpur, submitted that 15 officers of the revenue department were illegally appointed as ACs in BPS-17 by way of nomination without qualifying the requisite competent examination of the Sindh Public Service Commission. He said that the appointments were made in clear violation of the relevant law — Rule 10 of Sindh Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion & Transfer) Rules, 1974 — that said: “Initial appointment to posts in BPS-16 to 22 shall be made if the post (a) fall within the purview of Commission, on the basis of examination or test to be conducted by the Commission”.
The petitioner stated that the services of 18 officers were made permanent in complete derogation and in violation of mandatory requirement of qualifying departmental examination of the Assistant Collector Examination Part I and Part II.
The petitioner stated that the ill will and mala fide on the part of the official respondents clearly signified from the fact that 24 officers were given exemption from passing mandatory departmental examination and made ACs.
He further submitted that now it transpired that the respondent officers had been illegally and unlawfully promoted to BPS-18 for which they were not qualified.
The petitioner stated that some of the officers were even promoted in the BPS-19, although none of them passed the competitive examination.
He said that he being member of the National Assembly was interested in public affairs and was answerable to the people, therefore, he felt concerned with the impugned appointments of the respondents.
The petitioner stated that there was no provision in law whereby the provincial authorities might exempt officers or for that matter grant exemption to a civil servant from passing competitive examinations as well as mandatory departmental examinations.He prayed to the court to issue a writ of quo warranto against the appointed and promoted officers as to under what authority they assumed and held the public offices.
The petitioner also prayed to the court to declare that the appointment and promotion of the respondent officers were unlawful, ultra vires of the Constitution, mala fide and of no legal consequences.
He prayed to the court to direct the provincial authorities concerned to place the entire record of proceedings of appointment and promotion of the officer in court.
The respondent appointed and promoted officers were: Agha Pervaiz, Samiuddin Siddiqui, Muhammad Abbas Baloch, Abdul Wahab Memon, Muhammad Hussain Ghumro, Aijaz Hussain Baloch, Muhammad Sadiq Rajar, Kamran Shamshad, Syed Mohsin Ali Shah, Nasir Abbas Soomro, Muhammad Abid Qureshi, Muhammad Ali Shah, Syed Noor Muhammad Shah, Shahid Ali Leghari, Ali Ahmed Baloch, Haji Ahmed, Kazi Jan Muhammad, Mustafa Jamal Kazi, Karamuddin Panhyar, Muhammad Khan Rind, Makhdoom Shakeel-uz-Zaman, Chiragdin Hingoro, Ghulam Haider Mangrio, Syed Ahmed Ali Shah, Agha Siraj Ahmed Pathan, Shah Muhammad Shah, Muhammad Aslam Khoso, Amjad Ali Leghari, Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah, Deedar Hussain Baloch, Shahzad Tahir Taheem, Sikandar Ali Khushk, Muhammad Aslam Khoso, Imtiaz Ahmed Rajpar, Ghulam Haider Chandio, Aziz Ahmed Barlas, Makhdoom Aqeel-uz-Zaman, Nazir Ahmed Soomro, Abdul Faheem Memon, Muhammad Rafiq Shaikh, Waseemuddin, Arshad Waris, Mushtaq Ahmed, Riaz Ali Abbasi, Sohail Adeeb Bachani, Muhammad Babar Qadeer, Syed Mehdi Ali Shah, Muhammad Aslam Lund, Agha Abdul Rahim, Saleem Ahmed Khan, Maqsood Ahmed Qureshi and Sher Hussain Shah.