SHC continues with interim stay order against job advertisements

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday continued with its interim stay order that suspended the Sindh government’s advertisement with regard to appointments in government departments, autonomous bodies and process commenced through such advertisement till further orders.

The high court heard the arguments of a counsel on a lawsuit filed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) challenging the Sindh government’s advertisements for fresh appointments in various government, semi-government and autonomous bodies. After partial hearing of the case, the SHC adjourned the hearing till March 18.

The MQM-P submitted that the tenure of the previous Sindh government was about to end on August 11 last year but the government through its secretaries, departments and autonomous bodies unleashed a mala fide and unlawful campaign to fill thousands of vacancies without observing codal formalities by way of pre-poll rigging and they were being dished out to favourites and blue-eyed ones.

The plaintiff’s counsel, Farough Naseem, submitted that the Article 218 (3) of the Constitution provided that the elections were to be organised and conducted honestly, justly and fairly in accordance with the law and such induction in government jobs by the defendants violated the paradigms of the said Article of the Constitution.

The counsel submitted that the governments jobs were required to be filled in accordance with the rules 14, 15 and 16 of the Sindh Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules 1974 and Sindh Public Service Commission Act but various departments, offices and other departments issued an advertisement in the months of July and August 2023 in a great haste in a mala fide manner to complete the process of appointments illegally and unlawfully without completing codal formalities.

He said that some advertisements asked the candidates to come to walk-in interviews aiming at adjusting blue-eyed persons of the Sindh government.

He said the SHC had earlier ordered that the Sindh government shall ensure that all recruitment in all posts from grade 1 to 15 applied by the candidates be made through a competitive process on open merit with the budgetary sanction on a regular basis by invoking the services rules.

He said that even the advertisements in question were illegal as the same did not mention the requisite region of service or direct requisite domicile and permanent resident certificate in violation of the relevant rules.

He argued that the entire exercise for appointments under the advertisement in question ridiculed the common sense as the entire process was non-transparent and illegal as there had been no written tests or interviews at all which violated the administrative instructions of the Sindh government.

The lawyer stated that the posts of grade 1 to 4 had been advertised unlawfully as such posts did not carry the name of the region from which persons were to be inducted, which was mandatory as per the services rules that required filing of such posts on a local basis.

The counsel argued that it was not known from the said advertisement as to whether such posts shall serve to entire province or whether they were in respect of a particular region or district on a local basis.