WASA being run under makeshift arrangements

Employees union demands permanent, experienced managing director

HYDERABAD: After a month of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Hyderabad’s Managing Director (MD) Masood Jumani’s retirement, the post still awaits permanent appointment. The provincial government resorted on Thursday again to a makeshift arrangement for the second time in the month by assigning the additional charge of Wasa MD to Sindh Cane Commissioner Agha Abdul Rahim.



Earlier, the Hyderabad Additional Commissioner Muhammad Usman Tahir was given the same charge but he relinquished under pressure of the workers’ union on October 1. The union, however, has interestingly withdrawn from its earlier stance of appointment of a full time MD who has previously worked in a water supply and drainage organisation.

Last month, the union padlocked Wasa’s offices for a few days in protest. “The Mehran Workers Union... have demanded cancellation of [the] notification of the additional charge assigned to the undersigned [Tahir] as a stopgap arrangement,” reads the relinquishment letter which Tahir submitted to the provincial government on October 1, citing the union’s objection.

“They have further stated that the Wasa MD is a technical post for which a technical officer among the available officers of grade 19 may be appointed.” The letter pointed out that the union often stages sit-in demonstrations outside his office.

“I, therefore, relinquish the additional charge... with the request to post some other suitable grade 19 officer as the permanent Wasa MD,” he recommended in the letter. Rahim, meanwhile, assumed the charge on Thursday and submitted the joining report.

A delegation of the union met him on Thursday and called off the protest. “He has assured that he will ensure that the unpaid salaries of last four months are paid at the earliest. He has also assured that he will give maximum time to Wasa despite his responsibilities as the cane commissioner,” said Aslam Abbassi, the union’s general secretary, while talking to The Express Tribune.



He maintained that the union has suspended the protest because their priority now is payment of salaries to staff.

Rahim could not be contacted for his version to explain how he will do justice to both his assignments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2018.