Court restrains Saeed Ghani from running SESSI

The Sindh High Court restrained the chief minister’s adviser on labour and human resource on Tuesday from exercising any executive authority in the affairs of the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution or chairing its meetings until further orders.

The directives came on a petition filed by Abdul Sattar Niazi against adviser Saeed Ghani acting as the executive authority of SESSI.

He submitted that despite the court’s orders against advisers using ministerial powers, the ruling government party’s senator was holding a meeting of the SESSI’s governing body.

Chief secretary Rizwan Ahmed Memon appeared before the court and submitted that after the judgement of the SHC in the advisers case, none of them was exercising any executive authority or ministerial powers or holding any portfolio and the chief minister consulted them strictly as advisers.

The petitioner’s counsel, Mohammad Ali Lakhani, said that although the chief secretary had given a statement that neither any adviser was given any minister portfolio, nor exercising any executive authority, Ghani had called a meeting of the SESSI governing body as its chairman. The counsel argued that only the labour minister could be the SESSI chairman under the Sindh Employees Social Security Act.

He said a person, Khan Abro, had been appointed as coordinator to the chief minister’s adviser in his private capacity and was being paid from the public exchequer. The court issued notices and said the adviser would neither exercise any executive authority, nor chair any meeting of the SESSI and any order passed by him or his coordinator would be of no consequence.