SHC asks for service records of five Sindh Assembly officials of same family

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed a provincial law officer to file the service records of five provincial assembly secretariat officials, including a secretary, who belong to the same family, in a case about alleged out-of-turn promotions and illegal appointments at the secretariat.

The court also directed the law officer to file a statement about appointments and promotions of PA officials, including the criteria for their appointments and promotions. The petitioner had said that former PA secretary Hadi Bux Buriro had appointed his five sons, 10 to 20 nephews and other relatives on various posts in the PA, and had termed it the worst case of nepotism.

He said the five sons — GM Umar Farooq Buriro, Rashid Hussain Buriro, Arshad Hussain Buriro, Abdul Majid Buriro and Muzammil Rehman Buriro — were currently working as PA secretary (grade 21), director general (grade 20), deputy secretary (grade 18), controller (grade 18) and estate officer (grade 18) respectively.

He also said that it was a unique case of a father handing over his charge of PA secretary to his own son, who had the service length of only six years. The petitioner’s counsel said the PA secretary’s appointment was illegal because it was done without completing the codal formalities.

The counsel said the present PA secretary was appointed as an assistant research officer (grade 16) by his father, then promoted out of turn to grade 19 in 2009. He said the other sons of the former PA secretary were also inducted on lower grades, then granted out-of-turn promotions to grade 17 and above by flouting the rules.

He requested the high court to issue a quo warranto writ and declare that the respondents had been working on higher posts on the basis of out-of-turn promotions. He also requested the high court to declare that the initial appointment, and the subsequent appointments and promotions of the respondents were illegal and void ab initio in accordance with the dictum laid down by the superior courts.

PA Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani filed a statement clarifying that the para-wise comments filed by former secretary Mohammad Khan Rind were unauthorised and filed without the speaker’s permission. He said that an inquiry had been initiated against Rind.

He questioned the petition’s maintainability, saying that if the petitioner had any grievance about the appointments and promotions of the respondents, why did he not challenge them in the past nine years. He said if there were additional posts of additional secretary, why had the prospective expectant candidate not applied for promotion.

He also said the petition was misconceived because all the promotions and appointments of the respondents were made by the competent authority upon the recommendations of the departmental promotion committees, whose chairman was the then senior special secretary Rind.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro directed the respondents’ counsels to file their respective comments and directed the law officer to file the service records of the five officials of the same family on March 1.