The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday suspended the provincial government’s notification regarding deputation of a federal government officer as Sindh Agriculture Extension director general.
Terming the deployment illegal and ordering the government to immediately send back the officer to his parent department, the SHC division bench – comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa – disposed of the constitution petition filed by Sarfaraz Metlo.
Metlo, a grade-20 officer in the Sindh Agriculture Department, had challenged the appointment of a federal government employee in his department under the provincial government. Citing Sindh chief secretary, and Agriculture and Services secretaries as respondents, the petitioner pleaded the court to nullify the deployment of the employee on deputation basis.
Before issuing the orders, the court had heard the final arguments from both sides. The petitioner submitted that the Sindh government ignoring some deserving officers, had deputed Abdul Waheed Sheikh, a federal grade-19 officer, as the director general at Sindh Agricultural Extension by issuing a notification in December 2010.
The plaintiff stated that according to an apex court order, the deployment on deputation of non-cadre officers was illegal. Representing the Sindh government before the court, Additional Advocate Adnan Memon submitted that the provincial government has constitutional powers to depute non-cadre offices as well as deployment of government employees in any government department and also cited some examples.
Expressing dissatisfaction over his arguments, the court refused his justification and allowed the petitioner’s plea while annulling the notification to depute Sheikh.
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