Mayor laments revocation of permission to fill junior staff’s vacant posts

The Sindh government has cancelled the permission for appointments of staff of grade one to four at municipal bodies, including the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

According to a statement issued by the KMC, all legal formalities had been completed and advertisements also issued after the Sindh government allowed the KMC to recruit junior staff 24 days ago. However, through a letter signed by the local government director, the KMC and other civic bodies in Karachi were informed that the permission for the appointments of staff of grade one to four had been cancelled.

Reacting to the provincial government’s move, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar called it unjustifiable. He said various posts of grade one to four were lying vacant since many years in the KMC and other civic bodies, due to which the Sindh government had recently permitted them to fill those posts.

All formal requirements had been fulfilled and the KMC had started receiving job applications from candidates, Akhtar said. He pointed out that the Sindh government suddenly cancelled the permission for recruitment in municipal organisations of Karachi only, whereas, the same permission to the local bodies in other divisions of Sindh was not revoked.

The mayor said the Sindh government’s move implied that it did not want youth of Karachi to enjoy government jobs. Such acts, he said, would exacerbate the feeling of deprivation among the people of Karachi.

The mayor maintained that recruitment for the vacant posts had already been included in the budget and so new appointments were not supposed in increase financial burden on the government.

He lamented that 1,132 young candidates were deprived of government jobs in the KMC by the Sindh government. He asked why the same decision was not taken for all the municipal bodies of Sindh.

This may be noted that the services and general administration department of the provincial government had on May 8, 2019, allowed recruitment of municipal staff from grade one to four, after which the local government department gave the permission to the municipal bodies in the entire province to start the process for appointments.

The permission for appointments of municipal staff in Karachi was cancelled in another letter that was issued on June 24. However, the same letter allowed the municipal bodies in the rest of Sindh to complete the recruitment process.