‘Age-old’ controversy: SHC wants to see KMC administrator’s education records to determine his age

Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, secretary to submit replies by August 13.

KARACHI:

To resolve the controversy involving the actual date of birth of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) Rauf Akhtar Farooqui, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the Board of Secondary Education Karachi.

Headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, a division bench also allowed time to the administrator till August 13 to submit his reply to the appeal filed by the Sindh Building Control Authority. Farooqui, who is due to retire next year, faces the allegations of having changed his age in the official documents unlawfully, becoming three years younger than his actual age, allegedly to enjoy official benefits and perks for more years.

On Friday, the secondary education board’s secretary was issued notices by a division bench on an application filed by one of the colleague’s of the administrator. Mumtaz Haider, who has already filed a constitutional petition against the administrator for ‘illegally’ changing his date of birth in the official records, pleaded the court allow him join the proceedings initiated by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA).

Last month, the SBCA had challenged suspension of its official order to stop Farooqui’s salaries. Shahid Jamiluddin Khan, the authority’s legal adviser, had submitted that Farooqui’s first domicile was submitted from Karachi in 1979, when he was appointed as the assistant buildings controller of the SBCA. This domicile claimed that Farooqui was born on October 26, 1952, he said.

In the year 1992, the administrator produced another domicile from Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab. 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 and was born on October 26, 1955.

On the basis of the second domicile, Farooqui submitted an application to the then mayor of the KMC with a request to change his date of birth from October 26, 1952, to October 26, 1955, the legal adviser said. The mayor allowed the application without adopting the procedure for changing of date of birth, 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.

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 with these dates, it issued a letter to the education board as the board had issued his Intermediate certificate. The BIEK secretary confirmed that Farooqui’s date of birth is October 26, 1952.

Following this confirmation, Khan said 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,” he pointed out.

The respondent challenged the official order before a SHC single bench, which suspended the operation of the orders. The court was pleaded to set aside the single bench order.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2014.