SC stops Sindh Coal Authority from working on irrelevant projects

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday declared that without a functional board, the Sindh Coal Authority is dysfunctional and directed the chief secretary Sindh to hold an inquiry into all the projects/schemes undertaken by the Sindh Coal Authority and the Special Initiative Department in line with its judgment. 

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ameer Hani Muslim, announced a reserved judgment in a suo moto case about the appointments in the Sindh Coal Authority, which were in contravention of the Supreme Court judgments. The court directed the chief secretary Sindh to submit the proposed report within two months on receipt of its order.

It is pertinent to mention here that the former chief justice had taken notice on an anonymous complaint wherein serious allegations were made against the Sindh Coal Authority and the Energy Department of the Government of Sindh.

It was alleged that three persons were illegally employed in the authority and huge amounts were embezzled from the projects that were executed by the authority.

The judgment authored by Justice Qazi Faez Isa declared that the Sindh Coal Authority can only implement and execute such projects and schemes which are mentioned in the Sindh Coal Authority Act.

By adding the prefix ‘coal’ to a project or a scheme or otherwise juggling words, a project or a scheme cannot be executed by the Sindh Coal Authority, which is not mentioned in the Sindh Coal Authority Act, says the judgment.

The provincial government had conceded that some of the appointments were not made in accordance with the law and repatriated the officers to their respective departments. However, the government contended that the appointments of Danish Saeed as DG, Muhammad Ali Memon as chief engineer and Zameer Ahmed Sheikh as executive engineer were in accordance with the law.

The apex court, however, noted that these officers were inducted in violation of the apex court judgements and the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1973.

The court directed that the projects and schemes which have been implemented/executed or those which are being implemented by the Sindh Coal Authority, which are not in respect of exploration, development, processing, mining or utilizing of coal in the province of Sindh, be immediately transferred to the concerned provincial government department in terms of Schedule II of the Sindh Government Rules of Business.

Similarly, the court also directed that the projects and schemes which have been implemented/executed or those which are being implemented by the Special Initiative Department be immediately transferred to the concerned government department in terms of Schedule II of the Sindh Government Rules of Business. The court directed the chief secretary Sindh to hold an inquiry of all the projects/schemes undertaken by Sindh Coal Authority and the Special Initiative Department in line with its judgment besides directing him to submit proposed report within two months on receipt of its order.

“The Sindh Coal Authority was established to explore, develop, process, mine and utilize coal in the Province of Sindh, however, instead of undertaking what the law mandates it to do, it undertook activities which the Act does not permit, and that too without the approval of its Board”, the judgment noted.

The court ruled that Special Initiative Department, to which the Rules of Business have not designated any business, is merely a department in name or an empty shell, nonetheless it has embarked upon undertaking a number of projects and schemes for which it has absolutely no mandate or ability.

The court observed that the Sindh Coal Authority and the Special Initiative Department together are implementing and executing projects and schemes worth 105,906,940,000 rupees.

“A small clique of persons is put in charge of these massive funds, avoiding established methods of checks and balances and circumventing the prescribed manner of implementing and executing of projects/schemes; which is a matter of grave public concern”, says the verdict.

The court noted that the case involved the Fundamental Rights of the people. The Fundamental Right under Article 9 of Constitution deal with right to life, which includes the right to adequate and safe drinking water and basic health care to which a large number of these projects/schemes pertain.

Whereas the Fundamental Right to live a life with dignity under Article 14 would be meaningless if the people are deprived of the benefit of projects and schemes that are paid out of the public exchequer, the court observed.

The court ruled that the Fundamental Rights of the people are adversely affected when scarce resources are wasted, when there is unnecessary duplication of work, when responsibility is shirked by those executing public works and when it would be very difficult to hold anyone accountable as a result of implementing and executing projects/schemes through an entity or department which the law does not sanction.