Sindh again told to remove three recently appointed administrators

The provincial election commission has written a second letter to the Sindh government, directing it to withdraw the appointments of three newly appointed administrators in Karachi and Hyderabad.

The electoral body, in its letter to the secretary of the local government department, has stated that the appointments of the three administrators should be withdrawn before the conduct of local bodies elections to be held on January 15.

It has received three more complaints from Sindh Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf President Ali Haider Zaidi, the Jamaat-e-Islami's Raja Arif Sultan and Dr Shahab Imam Advocate.

The commission had already informed the local government department about the complaints and instructed that the appointments of the new administrators should be withdrawn immediately.

Last Wednesday, it had asked the government to remove all the new administrators.

In a letter, the election commissioner stated that Javed-ur-Rehman Kalwar, administrator of the District Municipal Corporation of District Korangi, and Rehmatullah Shaikh, administrator of the DMC of District East, have been transferred and directed to report to the Sindh Local Government Board. In addition, Muhammad Farooque has been appointed as administrator of Hyderabad and he has relieved the incumbent deputy commissioner of Hyderabad from the additional charge.

The letter reads: “It is to inform that the Election Commission of Pakistan has imposed a ban on transfers and postings during the conduct of the Local Government election. Moreover, the ECP, Islamabad has announced poll day for the LG election scheduled on January 15, 2023. Therefore, no transfer and posting of the government officers and officials including those of autonomous bodies and authorities can be made without prior approval of the ECP till the publication of election results.”

The election commissioner requested the Sindh government to place the transfer notifications of the three administrators in abeyance till the culmination of the LG polls.