After nine years, Sindh govt to refer appointment of information officers to SPSC

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to refer appointments of 38 Information Officers of Sindh Information and Archives Department to the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) for assessing their suitability for the positions, after the lapse of nine years.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has already initiated an investigation against incumbent Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, former CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah, former minister information Sharjeel Memon, former CS Rizwan Memon, and six secretaries of the Sindh government. The Sindh government also asked the Sindh Accountant General’s (AG) office to stop the salaries of these officers.

Documentary evidences available with The News reveal that some 42 officials, majority of them sons, brothers, and close relatives of Sindh’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party, were appointed in 2012 and two journalists in June 2017, violating the Sindh Service Rules by misinterpreting the Sindh High Court order.

According to the service rules, any person having masters degree of mass-communication (journalism) is eligible for the post of Information Officer of Grade 17, only after a test and interview of the Sindh Public Service Commission but in 2012 only to accommodate the favorites, the rules were illegally amended by fixing the criteria of the post masters degree in any subject and the vacancies were filled only through walk-in-interviews by the department itself.

It is pertinent to mention here that from 2003 to-date, only 25 Information Officers with ‘Masters in Mass Communication’ could get jobs on merit through the Sindh Public Service Commission, but in 2013, by misusing powers the Sindh government appointed 43 Information Officers.

The NAB sources informed that sufficient evidence has been gathered by the Bureau and in the coming days, some high-profile arrests are expected. According to NAB official correspondence, CM Murad Shah was asked through an official letter that “during his incumbency as chief minister in 2017, he had approved a summary for regularization of 38 Information Officers of Grade 17, which prima facie is against the law as the Sindh Public Service Commission was kept out of the loop at the time of regularisation. Moreover, these officers who were regularised were not eligible for the vacancies because they were illegally appointed in 2012”.

In this regard, a questionnaire was also been sent to CM Sindh Shah and on October 15, 2020, then CM Sindh Shah appeared before the NAB Karachi and recorded his statement.

The NAB in 2018 had initiated an inquiry against illegal appointments of 43 Grade 17 Information Officers in Sindh Information and Archives Department in 2012 and has raided many times the Sindh Information Department and seized the record. Some of the officers, after the inquiry, have left their jobs. The inquiry was initiated on the complaint of Kosar Noor Solangi, a post-graduate of the Mass Communication Department.

The Information Department, Sindh, was also asked by NAB to provide details of Information Officers of Grade 17 appointed on contract in 2012 along with their qualification and experience, their salary details including details of the head from they were paid salaries and asked to provide information that whether these officers were appointed during the ban of the Election Commission or not. According to the NAB documents, these 40 plus Information Officers of Grade 17 were appointed in 2012 on contract basis and then their contracts were extended illegally.