Violating court orders: Civic body head’s appointment challenged in SHC

SDA DG was earlier removed from the same post by the court.

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices on Thursday on a petition that challenged the appointment of the director-general (DG) of the Sehwan Development Authority (SDA).

Muneer Ahmed Soomro, the SDA DG, was removed from the same post by the SHC Hyderabad circuit bench in December 2009, after being accused of various charges including corruption and posting on an OPS basis against a cadre post of BPS-20. He had also been implicated in an inquiry report by retired judge Zaheeruddin S Leghari.

Soomro, who has worked for the SDA since its establishment in 1997, has also been alleged to have remained absent from service for several years. He resumed his duty as project director on July 2, this year, and was subsequently given the additional charge of the cadre post of BPS-20 DG on July 14.

His fresh appointment has been challenged by Shahzado Kabooro, a real estate agent working with the SDA, who pleaded for the nullification of his appointment saying that it violated court orders. "Soomro was posted as the DG in 2009 and he was removed from the post on the SHC's orders," read a letter sent to the local government (LG) secretary by former SDA DG Asghar Shaikh on February 19, 2014, according to the petition. "Since then, he has not attended the office."



The court remarked that his removal was ordered "to save public money from further embezzlement and for the smooth functioning of the authority". He was also asked to hand over his charge to then housing secretary Khawaja Shafiq. The SHC further ordered the repatriation of all employees working on deputation in the SDA to their parent organisations, the examination of expenses, the disposal of extra cars and either the relieving or the retention of surplus employees.

Soomro appealed against the SHC's order in the Supreme Court (SC) in 2009, but the appeal was dismissed in 2010. The SC further directed the LG secretary to appoint a full-time DG instead of assigning the post as an additional charge. "The provincial government has violated the court orders by once again appointing Soomro on two posts in quick succession," said Kabooro, who also levelled accusations of embezzlement against the DG in his petition.

Development schemes

The SDA is developing over a dozen housing schemes in Jamshoro but nearly none of them, including those initiated in the 1980s and 1990s, have been completed. The SDA was previously taken to court by multiple persons over long delays in the handover of allotments. The SHC had noticed that the allottees were not assigned plot numbers, streets or sectors, showing that even the demarcation of the housing schemes had not been done.

An SDA official told The Express Tribune, on the condition of anonymity that the authority was given 5,500 acres of land when it was founded. It set aside 1,000 acres for cooperative housing societies, while the rest was to be developed by it in the form of different housing schemes, including low-cost ones. He added that the SDA's monthly revenue generation is between Rs5 to 6 million, which is approximately half the sum of money required for the payment of salaries.

The official also said that the DG withdrew Rs15 million from the Mehran Dream City project a few months ago. "This project's account is meant to only be used for development works, and cash cannot be withdrawn from it," he said. "The only way of utilising the sum is via cheques, which are paid to the contractors."

The authority is also responsible for issuing no objection certificates (NOCs) for all private and government real estate development projects in the district. However, SDA officials allegedly take advantage of this to line their own pockets.

The divisional bench of Justice Abdul Rasool Memon and Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro issued notices on Thursday to the respondents, including the chief secretary, the LG and services general administration and coordination secretaries and Soomro, to submit their replies on October 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.