SHC strikes down Provincial Management Services Rules 2018

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday declared the Provincial Management Service (PMS) Rules 2018 to be in violation of the constitution and observed that the Sindh government had attempted to politicise the civil service structure by framing such rules again under the guise of creating a new service.

Issuing detailed judgment on a petition against the creation of the PMS by the Sindh government, a division bench of the SHC comprising Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Adnan-ul Karim Memon held that the constitution protected the civil service structure, which was the backbone of the country.

The bench remarked that the civil service structure should be independent of political intervention, and all the appointments should be made on merit, but this was done away by introducing PMS Rules.

The high court held that the PMS Rules were ultra-vires of the sections 8 and 9 of the Sindh Civil Servants Act 1973 and Article 240(b) of the Constitution.

The SHC observed that the PMS Rules also violated principles laid down in the Supreme Court judgments. The bench observed that many candidates who had passed the combined competitive examination and were allocated ex-PCS cadre/assistant commissioner posts were issued offer letters as PMS officers against the law.

The bench directed the chief secretary to ensure that successful candidates were shifted to the ex-PCS cadre as per merit immediately. The high court observed that the Sindh government in spite of a restraining order continued appointing officers under the PMS Rules. The judgment said that those officers who had passed the combined competitive examination through the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) should be examined again by the SPSC on the touchstone of the 1962 and 1964 rules of ex-PCS and PSS to evaluate their merit as were practised earlier before the PMS rules came into force.

The high court observed that any other officer of an equivalent post appointed as a PMS Officer would immediately be sent to their parent department as if they were never appointed as a PMS officer.

The SHC observed that the PMS Rules had in fact provided a window to the blue-eyed officers of the Sindh government to be inducted in the PMS Service in complete defiance of the Supreme Court judgments.

The high court observed that the Sindh government through the impugned rules would appoint all those officers who were non-cadre officers or non-civil servants without the CCE in the PMS service and post them as cadre officers.

The SHC observed that the impugned rules were in fact instrumental for appointment of all those officers who did not qualify and/or appeared in the competitive examination but through these rules, they were provided opportunity to be appointed on cadre posts.

The SHC observed that the PMS Rules in fact had conferred absolute discretion in the government to post any PMS Officer to any cadre post without consideration of merit.

The high court observed that the PMS Rules had not defined the term “any other officer” nor the term “equivalent post” and even these two terms had not been defined in the parent statute i.e. SCS Act, 1973.

The petitioners had submitted that the impugned rules were repugnant to the provision of the SCS Act 1973 and these rules were in conflict with the sections 8 and 9 of the SCS Act. They submitted that the PMS Rules 2018 had introduced a parallel mechanism for appointment of civil servants negating the Sindh Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion, and Transfer) Rules, 1974 (APT Rules,1974) framed under the SCS Act,1973.

A provincial law officer and counsel for intervenors supported the impugned rules on the ground that the SCS Act 1973 had been enacted according to the provisions of the Article 240 of the constitution.

They submitted that the existing cadres Ex-PCS and PSS had been declared dying cadres because no new appointment was to be made in these services, but these cadres were protected under their separate entities under the sections 5(i), (iii), (iv) & (v) of the PMS Rules, 2018. They requested the high court to allow PMS Rules 2018 and induction of dying cadres in PMS by maintaining a separate seniority list and proportionate promotion-sharing formula on the pattern of PMS Punjab.