SHC orders removal of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board MD

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed the Sindh government to de-notify the posting of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) managing director (MD) and make a new appointment after advertising the post and observing all the codal formalities as provided under the law.

The high court also made it clear that in the intervening period no ad-hoc arrangement shall be made as far as the posting of the MD, deputy managing director finance and secretary of the KWSB was concerned.

The direction came on a petition of Mohammad Aslam Awan who had challenged the appointment of Asadullah Khan as the KWSB MD on the own pay scale (OPS) basis in violation of the court directives.

The petitioner submitted in the petition that the respondent MD was appointed on the OPS basis on September 24, 2020, but despite of a notification issued on March 26, 2021 that relieved all such officers, the respondent was continuing his assignment on the OPS basis.

Awan submitted that the post of the KWSB MD could be filled through a competitive process and not otherwise, and hence a notification issued by the chief secretary on January 18, 2022, which declared that Khan’s appointment as the KWSB chief was of permanent nature, was illegal.

The local government secretary had filed comments on the petition submitting that the posts of the MD, deputy director finance and secretary of the KWSB had been de-cadered by the services department with the approval of the competent authority.

He submitted that after de-cadering, deputy KWSB MD Khan, who was holding additional charge for the post of the KWSB MD, was transferred and posted as the MD of the water and sewerage utility on a regular basis.

A division bench of the SHC comprising Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar and Justice Adnanul Karim Memon after hearing the arguments of the counsel observed that the KWSB was a statutory body under the government’s control.

The high court observed that the appointment in the public sector was a trust in the hands of public authorities and it was their legal and moral duty to discharge their function as a trustee with complete transparency as per requirements of the law so that no person who was eligible to hold such a post was excluded from the process of selection.

The bench observed that it was concerned with the enforcement of the orders passed by the Supreme Court (SC) on the subject issue. The high court observed it was cognisant of the policy decision of the Sindh government about filling the subject posts through a competitive process through a summary on November 11, 2021.

The SHC observed that the chief secretary did not act in the light of the SC judgment as well as the policy decision taken by the competent authority, the CM, vide a summary floated by the local government secretary and issued a notification by posting Khan as the KWSB MD on a regular basis and allowed him to join the post vide joining report on January 25, 2022.

The bench remarked that it was unfortunate state of affairs on the chief secretary’s part. The SHC directed the Sindh government to de-notify the posting of Khan as the water board chief and make a new appointment after advertising the post.