Court orders KPT to employ children of 273 retired employees

SHC seeks NAB report on ‘illegal’ KPT appointments.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Thursday the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) management to provide jobs to the children of 273 retired employees under the ‘son quota’ within three months.

A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, also directed the KPT authorities to file a compliance report. The order came on petitions filed by the children of dozens of retired employees, who had taken the KPT management, the ports and shipping ministry and others to court for denying them jobs.

The petitions informed the judges that the then prime minister had, in 2012, ordered the KPT to give jobs to the retired employees’ children but they failed to implement the order despite the lapse of four years now. Their lawyer, Muhammad Tariq, argued that at least one child should be employed in grade 1 or 2 by the employer but the KPT management was not adhering to this rule, which is a violation of the laws governing the port employees.

The court was pleaded to order the ports and shipping ministry and KPT chairperson to grant jobs to 273 petitioners under the son-quota system.

Irregularities in appointments

Meanwhile, the same bench expressed dismay over the state of affairs in government departments, observing that no action was being initiated against higher-ups for committing irregularities while employees were being terminated from their jobs.

The bench questioned what action was initiated against the higher-ups who were behind alleged illegal recruitments in KPT. The bench was hearing identical petitions challenging show-cause notices issued by the KPT management to over 200 employees appointed between June 2012 and November 2013.

On May 3, the bench had stayed the termination of the petitioners’ employment and called for comments from the KPT. On Thursday, the KPT lawyer informed that the appointments were illegal, thus it was rightly decided to terminate all such employees. He added that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had conducted an inquiry into the appointments. When the bench members inquired what action was initiated against the officers involved in such appointments, the law officer failed to answer.

The bench questioned why the authorities had not taken any action over the appointments during the last four years. They added that no action has been taken against the authorities, while the employees are being terminated.

The judges noted that the situation was similar everywhere, be it the Sindh government, police, health and education departments, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation or KPT.

The bench directed the KPT law officer to present the report of the NAB inquiry into the alleged illegal appointments and other relevant documents to support their claims by May 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2016.