SHC stays appointment of board chairmen

The educational boards in Sindh, awaiting appointments of full-time chairmen for several years, are likely to continue functioning under the interim heads as the Sindh High Court has stayed the recent appointments of eight chairmen for the boards.

The Hyderabad circuit bench on Tuesday put the respondents, including the Sindh government through the chief secretary, Sindh Universities and Boards Department and the Search Committee besides the eight chairmen, on notice for March 26.

"Until the said date, the subject summary shall not proceed to the adversity of the petitioners," reads the order.

The petitioners Abdul Jabbar Abbassi and Sikandar Ali Mirjat were candidates in the recruitment process. The former is an associate professor teaching English language, based in Hyderabad, and the latter is the chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Larkana.

A summary was moved with those eight names, besides one of Brig Syed Waseem Akhtar, to the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on February 3. But Akhtar's name in the shortlisted candidates stirred a reaction in the province because of his domicile of another province, prompting him to withdraw his candidature.

"This is another instance which demonstrates that the recruitment process is a sham and based on nepotism and reeks of mala fides," the petitioners contended.

The CM, on March 1, endorsed the eight names as recommended by the search committee for the appointment.

The two petitioners hinged their case upon the contention that the search committee, which conducted the recruitment, acted out of its purview because its domain is confined to the appointments of the public sector universities' vice chancellors.

Another argument, pleaded by BISE Larkana's chairman Mirjat, cited that none of the eight chairmen had prior experience of working in the educational boards of Sindh.

He alleged that all the board employees with relevant work experience were ignored in the appointment process in violation of the court order. He recalled that the secretary boards and universities had given a verbal assurance in the SHC on December 13, 2024, stating, "In the cases where candidates with equal qualifications are available, preference would be given to those with experience working within the department."

The petitioner pointed out that the same statement was made a part of the judge's order but the government respondents ended up allegedly flouting that order.

There are seven educational and one technical boards in the province. The eight names recommended for the posts of the chairmen include Dr Asif Ali Memon, Ghulam Hussain Soho, Mansoor Rajput, Muhammad Misbah Tunio, Musharraf Ali Rajput, Dr Rafiq Ahmed Chandio, Khalid Hussain Mahar and Dr Zahid Ali Channar. They secured 56 to 59.4 scores in the recruitment process.

The positions of chairman for the BISEs of Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah, as well as the secondary and higher secondary education boards of Karachi and the Sindh Board of Technical Education, were advertised in December, 2023. The petitioners prayed the court to declare the said appointments and the February 20 summary and its March 1 endorsement by the CM as unlawful.

They also pleaded the court to restrain the notification of the appointments and to bar the selected candidates from acting in pursuance of the summary.