37 officers no longer have job

SHC suspended appointments on a petition questioning hiring process.

HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday suspended the appointments of information officers (IO) hired in the grade-17 category on a contractual basis.

The Sindh Information Department had advertised 30 posts in October and November last year. Thirty-seven IOs were appointed against the posts but sources claimed that the actual number could be as high as 45

A division bench, comprising Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Aftab Gorar, on Wednesday heard the petition of Saifuddin Ahmed who challenged these appointments. The petitioner’s counsel, advocate Nasim Abbassi, in her arguments cited sections 18 and 19 of the Sindh Civil Servants  Appointment Rules, 1974, to contend that the recruitment was illegal.



“Most of the jobs have been given to the relatives of politicians in the government and the bureaucracy,” she claimed, while reading the names of the appointees. The lawyer also objected to the procedure adopted for recruitment. “According to the rules, all the appointments from Grade 11 to 22 have to be made through the Sindh Public Service Commission. And, even if the government is making temporary hiring for three to six months, the candidates who qualified the SPSC exams but could not be appointed due to the limited number of posts should be given priority,” Abbassi argued.

The posts were only advertised twice in three English, Urdu and Sindhi newspapers that were of low circulation. The first advertisement in October, 2012, invited applications only from the mass communication or journalism graduates. However, this requirement was changed to social sciences subject in another advertisement published in November 2012.

The bench issued notices to chief secretary Sindh, secretary information and director-general information to submit their replies on March 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2013.