Court rules: SC wants fresh report in OPS case

Apex court says the report submitted by services and general administration dept is ‘ambiguous’.

KARACHI: The Sindh government claimed to have removed over 200 junior officers, who were illegally given charge of senior posts in the provincial bureaucracy, in compliance of the order passed by the Supreme Court. But, the apex court seems less impressed by the whole exercise.

Judicial sources told The Express Tribune on Friday that the Supreme Court (SC) has declared a report submitted by the provincial chief secretary, Sajjad Saleem Hotiana, in compliance of its May 9 order for removal of the junior officers working in the OPS on the senior posts in violation of the service rules as 'ambiguous'. They claim that the apex court rejected the report submitted by the chief secretary.

In the report submitted to the SC on June 23, the chief secretary informed the court that in compliance of the court's order he had issued orders to the heads of as many as 44 government departments and five commissioners asking that all officers under the control of the Services, General Administration and Cooperation Department posted on the OPS should be transferred. He had submitted that in addition to this, police officers posted on the OPS in BS-20 and BS-21 had also been transferred. The report stated that the chief secretary with the approval of the chief minister had issued four separate notifications on May 19 and May 25, ordering 206 OPS officers to report to their parent departments.

"All the administrative departments have been directed to ensure compliance of the SC's order and implementation of the subsequent notifications of transfer of the officers on the OPS," stated the report.

The apex court, however, remarked that the report submitted by the services and general administration department is 'ambiguous'.

"The concerned secretary should spell out that no employee/officer is working in OPS and those, who are working, have been posted back," a letter sent by the SC assistant registrar, copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, quoted the judges' observation. "It should further certify who is the new incumbent against the vacant post," the bench remarked.

The SC has further directed the chief secretary to submit a fresh report after obtaining the certificate from all the secretaries of the departments, containing the aforesaid details within three weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.