SHC directs food secretary to appoint district food controllers within a month

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed the food secretary to appoint the district food controllers within a month in accordance with the law.

The direction came on a petition of Ali Ashgar who impugned the appointments of assistant food controllers to look after the work of district food controllers in Sukkur, Larkana, Matiari, Kamber-Shahdadkot and other districts as a stopgap arrangement till the posting of a regular district food controller.

The food secretary submitted that the appointments were made as stopgap arrangements as department were lacking the district food controllers as per required strength while some of the officers were suspended on complaints of corruption and misconduct.

An additional advocate general submitted that the food secretary had issued a notification on April 30 whereby the notifications impugned in the present petition had been suspended and it had been notified that some of the respondents in the petition had ceased to hold the charge of district food controllers.

He submitted that officers had been assigned additional charge for the posts held by those respondents and requested the high court to dismiss the petition.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar after hearing the case directed the food secretary to appoint the district food controllers within 30 days strictly in accordance with the law as laid down by the Supreme Court.

The high court observed that the conduct of the food secretary did not appear to be proper and reasonable as notifications of postings had been issued by him one after the other in an indiscriminate manner by giving acting and/or additional charge as stopgap arrangements to junior officers in utter disregard and violation of the law laid down by the Supreme Court and the high court.

The SHC warned the food secretary to be careful in future. The high court directed the chief secretary to ensure that all the transfers, postings, etc. in the food department which were done by the food secretary shall be strictly in accordance with the law as it had been laid down by the Supreme Court and the SHC.