Too 'young' to retire?: Administrator three years older than he says

SHC informed Rauf Farooqui changed his date of birth on domicile to gain service benefits.

KARACHI:

Karachi administrator Rauf Akhtar Farooqui is three years older than what he claims in his domicile, the Sindh High Court was informed on Monday.

To allow the respondents to file their comments, the SHC bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan issued on Monday notices to the provincial advocate-general and administrator Farooqui for July 4. The notices came in response to an appeal filed by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) against an order passed by an SHC single bench on a dispute relating to Farooqui's salary. The authority claimed Farooqui changed his date of birth to delay his retirement.

The first domicile Farooqui submitted was from Karachi in 1979 when he was appointed as assistant buildings controller of the SBCA. This domicile said Farooqui was born on October 26, 1952, said SBCA law officer Shahid Jamiluddin Khan. In the year 1992, the administrator produced another domicile from Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab, said the petitioner. The new certificate was issued on November 20, 1979, and did not include a column for date of birth. However, the 'date of arrival in the place of domicile' stated that he is Pakistani by birth on October 26, 1955.

On the basis of the second domicile, Farooqui submitted an application to the then mayor of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation with a request to change his date of birth from October 26, 1952, to October 26, 1955, said lawyer Khan. The mayor allowed the application without adopting the procedure for change of date of birth or by filing proper proceedings, he claimed.

Domicile: Punjab

The petitioner also pointed out the then Karachi Building Control Authority, now known as SBCA, adopted the Karachi Development Authority's employment rules, which state that only candidates with domiciles from the province of Sindh can be eligible for appointment. Farooqui had submitted his Karachi domicile at the time of joining SBCA but later showed his Punjab domicile with the altered date of birth, the lawyer said, adding that Farooqui was not eligible for appointment.

He further informed the judges that, during the period of 1994-1996 when Farooqui was appointed as the chief controller of buildings at SBCA, he called for his personal file from the administration section but has yet to return it. Duplicate papers were prepared and the file was maintained in the administration section, the lawyer claimed.

BIEK confirmation

The petitioner's lawyer said that another officer, Mumtaz Haider, of the SBCA, had filed a constitutional petition highlighting the issues with Farooqui's date of birth and retirement. When SBCA learned about the controversy about these dates, it issued a letter to the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, on April 30 as the board had issued his Intermediate certificate. In response to the letter, the BIEK secretary confirmed that Farooqui's date of birth is October 26, 1952.

After this confirmation, the SBCA issued an order on the same day to stop Farooqui's salary as he had already drawn 18 months of salary beyond his date of retirement, which was October 25, 2012. "The respondent has already drawn at least 18 extra salaries than his entitlement, as he was to retire on October 25, 2012, and he has been drawing the salaries till April 2014 illegally from the public funds."

The appellant said Farooqui challenged this order by instituting a lawsuit before the single bench, which on June 11 suspended the operation of the SBCA order to stop his salary. The court was pleaded to suspend the order of the single bench.

After the preliminary hearing, the SHC bench directed the SBCA lawyer to file the documents, which he wants to submit with the court as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2014.