The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) to appoint some eligible person to hold charge as its administrator.
The high court warned that failing to implement the court order would result in adverse consequences for the NICVD administration and relevant government officials.
The direction came on a petition that challenged the appointment of Syed Mustafa Hasan as the NICVD administrator through an office order on November 4, 2023.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the respondent was not a qualified person to hold the post of the administrator because he did not possess the requisite academic qualification, which was a degree of masters in business administration, as mentioned in the NICVD Employees [Service] Regulations.
The counsel submitted that almost two years had passed and the respondent was holding the post illegally. A counsel for the NICVD opposed the arguments of the petitioner’s counsel and argued on the basis of para-wise comments of the respondent.
The counsel argued that the impugned office order had not appointed the respondent as the administrator, but he was holding charge as a stop-gap arrangement, thus, the petition was not maintainable.
He said that it was not disputed that the respondent possessed the degree of bachelors of arts in the third division and had been working as a senior officer in grade 18 in the NICVD. He, however, added that due to the impediment created by Sindh government, which was not taking any decision on the basis of the service regulations, the regular appointment could not be made.
The counsel referred to the minutes of the 83rd Governing Body Meeting stating that this issue was discussed in the Agenda No 4.
The petitioner’s counsel in his rebuttal mentioned an advertisement issued in March 2025, which showed that the NICVD was still recruiting different professionals for different posts.
A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Mohammad Faisal Kamal Alam and Justice Jawad Akbar Sarwana after hearing the arguments of the counsel observed that they had not been convinced with the arguments of the NICVD’s.
The SHC observed that fact of the matter was that the respondent was not an eligible person to hold the post as he lacked the academic qualification.
The bench observed that even if the argument of the respondent’s counsel was accepted that he had not been appointed but an order had only permitted him to hold the charge of the administrator as a stop-gap arrangement to look after day-to-day operations, he had been holding that charge for one year, 10 months and 20 days and such a period was sufficient for the NICVD and government to select and appoint an eligible person for such an important post.
The SHC observed that this petition was accepted only to extent that some eligible person should be appointed or directed to hold charge as the administrator of the NICVD within four months, failing which adverse consequences could follow not only against the administration of the NICVD but also against government officials.
