SHC seeks affidavit about repatriation of officers from MoFA

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Establishment Division secretary to file an affidavit with regard to the implementation of the Supreme Court’s order in the repatriation, absorption and deputation case.

The direction came on a petition of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MoFA) employees who sought the implementation of the SC’s orders and the repatriation of all the officers on deputation in MoFA to their parent departments.

Farman Ali and other petitioners claimed that MoFA’s authorities are bent upon granting undue favours to the officers who were hired on deputation basis and absorbed into the ministry.

They said that the respondents are not complying with the SC’s orders about the repatriation of the deputation officers and all the others who were absorbed into MoFA. They added that their service rights are being affected severely due to the absorption of the deputation officers into MoFA.

They requested the SHC to declare the appointment and absorption of all the officers on deputation basis in MoFA as unlawful and in violation of the SC’s judgment.

They also requested the high court to repatriate all the officers absorbed into the ministry who were hired on deputation basis to their parent departments.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayed directed the Establishment Division secretary to file an affidavit about the repatriation of the officers who were hired on deputation basis in the light of the SC’s judgment in the Ali Azhar Baloch case.

‘Illegal appointment’

The SHC also declared the appointment of the chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) and the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education Mirpurkhas (BISEM) as unlawful, and directed the provincial government to repatriate him to his parent department.

An SHC bench headed by Justice Adnanul Karim Memon said the government is not mandated to appoint Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah as a candidate for the post of BIEK chairman and BISEM chairman through the requisition of the services department.

The bench said that the basic process of the appointment of the respondent by way of deputation lacks transparency and legal support under the law.

The court declared the appointment of the BIEK chairman and the BISEM chairman as illegal and without lawful authority, and also set aside his requisition process by the services department.

Petitioner Syed Arif Ali had challenged Shah’s appointment, saying that the respondent being an officer of the education department from the federal government cannot be appointed at the BIEK or the BISEM through direct requisition.

Ali said that the appointment of the respondent had been made without adhering to the process prescribed under the law for the appointment of chairmen and controllers of examination of education boards.