Regularisation: Clerics go to court, demand permanent jobs

SHC wants to know how many clerics a govt mosque can have.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) called on Wednesday details from the Auqaf Department’s secretary and the chief administrator about the sanctioned strength of the clerics to be appointed to mosques by the government.

A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, asked for details while hearing a case involving a controversy over the appointment of clerics by the government on a political basis.

A group of clerics had taken the secretaries of the provincial Auqaf, religious affairs, Zakat and Ushr departments and the chief administrator of Karachi to the court for allegedly not regularising their contractual jobs. They told the judges that the previous governments had appointed them as peshimams, muezzins and khadims at different mosques in the city between 1995 and 2009 on a contract. “The government salary for a peshimam is Rs2,500, Rs2,000 for a muezzin and Rs1,500 for a khadim,” said the joint petition.

The petitioners said they were performing their duties despite the meagre remunerations and were always under threat that they could be terminated by the Auqaf department at any time.

Their lawyer, Muhammad Haseeb Jamali, said his clients had made several applications for regularisation but the officials always refused, saying they lacked funds. In 2010, the religious affairs, Zakat and Ushr departments received some money to pay the salaries of the regularised employees. They received the money in 2013 but they only paid those workers who were affiliated with the ruling party, the lawyer claimed.

Before the end of its tenure, the previous government had advertised the posts of the clerics for appointment as a formality because the individuals had already been selected, Jamali said, adding that these appointments for permanent posts violated the rights of the petitioners. They pleaded the court declare that these clerics are entitled to permanent positions and direct the Auqaf department to hire them.

On Wednesday, the bench directed the Auqaf department’s chief administrator, Abdul Rehman Cheema, to submit a proper statement on the total strength of the posts of peshimams, muezzins and khadims along with a list of the regular employees from the date of their initial regularisation.

The Auqaf secretary, Ramzan Khan, said the department earns its own income and the government had only provided Rs216 million as aid. The chief administrator responded this was not according to the request made to the finance department. To resolve the controversy, the two judges directed the Auqaf secretary to file detailed comments as well. The bench also directed the provincial law officer to call the section officer of the finance department on May 29 with the relevant details.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2014.