Officers on deputation grab top slots in HDA

The deputation based postings of top officials in Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) and its subsidiary Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has provoked a reaction from the local officials.

The postings of the outsider officers in the HDA began soon after Muhammad Suhail took charge of the authority's director general, replacing Ghulam Muhammad Qaimkhani, last year.

A deputy director from Karachi, where Suhail had last served as Malir Development Authority's head, was posted in HDA and another in WASA, both on important positions. On February 24, Sindh local government department directed eight more officials to report to the DG HDA on deputation for their posting in WASA.

Three of them were BPS-18 and five are BPS-17. They include Mushtaq Ahmed Shaikh of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Irfan Hyder and Faisalulllah Shaikh of District Municipal Corporation Malir and Yaseen Palijo of District Council Karachi. One of the officers was awaiting posting in Karachi while three others have been transferred from Umerkot, Jacobabad and Kambar-Shahdadkot districts.

"The DG is creating his own team in the HDA so that he can run it the way he likes," an official who requested anonymity alleged. "He wants to keep the local officials oblivious of what's cooking in the authority."

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In a letter to the provincial government, HDA Diploma Engineers Association has complained that the local officials have become increasingly wary of the transfers of outsiders on deputation in the authority. The association reminded the government that the posting on deputation is a violation of the supreme court's and Sindh high court's orders.

The letter was written by Muhammad Ali Baig, general secretary of the association who is posted as executive engineer drainage in Latifabad taluka. "The deputation based postings in any government departments are illegal." They demanded that all such officials should be transferred back to their parent departments.

The Non-gazetted HDA Employees Association has also expressed dismay over the issue. The association said the officers working on deputation and having multiple charges are contributing to decay in the services of the authority and WASA. They demanded that all officers working on deputation, posted against their cadre and those given multiple charges should be made to work according to the law and the superior judiciary's orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2022.