High court asks industries secretary how much revenue SITE has generated so far

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the secretary industries and commerce to tell it how much revenue the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate has generated so far and what the objective of the establishment of such industrial zone in Karachi was.

The direction came on a petition of Zulfiqar Ali Channa with regard to the appointment of Syed Arif Ahmed Zaidi as SITE managing director. A counsel for the petitioner, Ahmed Ali Hussain, had submitted that a government servant could be appointed as SITE MD but the respondent did not have a good service record as he was dismissed from the service.

He submitted that the high court had earlier suspended the order with regard to assigning him additional charge of the secretary and the impugned notification was withdrawn. He said the respondent had again been appointed and the management of SITE and other respondents had adopted a misleading attitude to favour Zaidi.

The additional advocate general filed a notification on April 27 with regard to de-notifying Syed Arif Ahmed Zaidi as director (admin) SITE and in his place Syed Ahmed Fawad has been posted as director general SITE.

A high court division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Faisal Kamal Alam directed the secretary industries and commerce to appear before the court and justify the repeated appointments of former MD Syed Arif Ahmed Zaidi, which was disputed by the government law officer.

The court directed the secretary industries and commerce to apprise the court how much revenue the SITE had generated so far and what the objective of establishment of such industrial zone in Karachi was. The SHC also continued the interim restraining order and directed the government counsel to justify re-appointment of Zaidi in SITE.