Challenging appointments: CM’s son, 10 others to be transferred

SHC Sukkur bench declares appointments of 11 officers, including the chief minister’s son, illegal.

SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court Sukkur bench declared the appointments of 11 officers, including the chief minister’s son, illegal and directed the provincial government to cancel their appointments within a month.

A division bench comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar issued these directives on Tuesday at the hearing of a constitutional petition filed by Safdar Ali Sahito, the organiser of the Sindh Dost Rabta Council, Khairpur through his lawyer, Zameer Ghumro.

According to the lawyer, Sahito had filed this petition in October last year, stating that 11 officers of Khairpur district including six EDOS and five DDOS were working on an “own-pay scale” at high posts (own-pay scale refers to a kind of illegal promotion in which a lower grade officer performs the duties of a higher grade official). The petitioner also said that Syed Liaqat Ali Shah, son of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, is working as EDO Health even though he is has no training or specialisation in this field.

The bench directed the government to cancel appointments of all officers working on the basis of own-pay scale and to appoint appropriate officers instead. “Today’s verdict would have an impact across the province, where hundreds of officers are working on own-pay scales,” said Ghumro.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2011.