Excise inspectors: Sindh govt told to give jobs to people who passed the test

Sindh AG directed to submit report that orders have been followed in two days.

KARACHI: The Supreme Court directed the Sindh government on Thursday to adjust 46 qualified candidates by creating new posts of inspectors in the provincial excise and taxation department.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany also directed the Advocate-General of Sindh to submit a compliance report in this regard within two days.

The orders came in a petition filed by Sono Khan Bhagat and 57 other candidates who approached the apex court against the Sindh government for not appointing them despite clear directions by the Sindh High Court.

They submitted that 208 candidates, who appeared in written and viva voce tests for appointment on posts of inspectors, qualified, but the government announced fresh appointments in violation of the service rules and regulations.

They challenged the decision to re-advertise these posts, before the high court bench at Sukkur, which ordered the government to issue posting orders for the qualified candidates.

The Sindh government challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which upheld the high court’s decision and ordered the government to give these candidates jobs instead. They maintained that the Sindh government was not giving them postings in defiance of the apex court’s orders.

After hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court’s bench directed the Sindh government to release funds to create the new posts and take on the qualified candidates. It also directed AG, Abdul Fattah Malik, to submit a compliance report within two days.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2012.