Irking the court: SHC issues arrest warrant for West DMC administrator

Aisha Abro failed to appear before court despite contempt notice

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) took serious exception to the continuous absence of administrator of West district municipal corporation (DMC), Aisha Abro, in a contempt case and issued bailable warrants for her arrest for a sum of Rs100,000.

A division bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, directed the relevant SSP to arrest and produce the officer in court at the next hearing.

The bench issued the warrants after the administrator failed to appear in response to show-cause notices issued to her on February 24 to explain her absence despite the issuance of a notice on a contempt of court application filed by an accounts officer, Hidayatullah Memon.

Memon had taken to court the provincial chief secretary, local government (LG) secretary and the West DMC administrator for posting him outside Karachi in order to allegedly victimise him for not obeying their 'illegal' orders.

The petitioner said he was working as an accounts officer at West DMC when, on May 20, 2015, the respondents asked him to sign some bills and other documents, but he refused. He alleged that the respondents transferred him and put him at the disposal of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC), where no post of BPS-18 existed.

He stated that the respondents gave the additional charge of his post to Baboo Mal, who is already holding an additional change of accounts officer at the municipal corporations of Malir, Korangi and Central districts.

The petitioner claimed that Mal is a non-cadre officer of BPS-17, who had illegally been favoured to continue on the cadre post in violation of the judgment given by the Supreme Court (SC) in the services case. Finding no cadre post at HMC, Memon pleaded to the respondents to accommodate him at Malir DMC, but they refused.

On Tuesday, the petitioner recalled that the bench had, on December 23, 2015, disposed of his petition ordering the respondents to allow him to join the new posting against the vacant post after the LG secretary produced a copy of the official notification regarding his posting.

Memon alleged that the respondents later refused to allow him to join the new assignment, which amounts to wilfully and deliberately committing contempt of court. Thus, he pleaded to proceed against LG secretary Noor Muhammad Leghari and Abro for contempt of court.

Taking up the contempt plea on February 2, the SHC bench had issued notices to the administrator, but she failed to appear on February 24, when she was issued a show-cause notice to explain her absence.

When the two-judge bench took up the matter on Tuesday, the administrator was absent again, which annoyed the bench.

Taking serious notice, the bench issued bailable warrants for arrest for the administrator for a sum of Rs100,000. The judges ordered the relevant SSP to arrest the alleged contemnor and produce her before the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2016.