The Sindh government is likely to cancel at least 7,500 political appointments made by the now defunct City District Government Karachi (CDGK) in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources said that over 7,500 illegal appointments had been made during the tenure of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-backed city nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal, putting extra burden on the KWSB’s finances.
After restoration of the commissionerate system by the provincial government recently, these politically-backed appointees have been fearing that they would be removed from their jobs as no one is there to support them anymore, the sources added.
They said that the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had time and again pointed out the illegal appointments in the water board.
A couple of inquiry committees had also been formed by the authorities to take notice of the illegal appointments and send these politically-backed appointees home, they added.
However, sources said, former coalition partner in Sindh and federal governments, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), had always resisted the move in a bid to support its loyalists.
They said that Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani had instructed KWSB Managing Director Ghulam Arif in April 2008 to submit a report within 90 days, clarifying how these appointments were made during the tenure of the caretaker government and the CDGK.
However, they added, no action was taken by the authorities due to reconciliatory politics and strong resistance from the MQM.
Sources said that as the PPP-MQM coalition is no more and the commissionerate system has been restored in place of the CDGK, the provincial government has decided to cancel the appointments made purely on political grounds.
In this regard, they said, the KWSB has recently been asked to furnish details of all the illegal appointments in the water board by the Local Government Department so that they could be removed.
“Over 7,000 appointments were made purely on political grounds, particularly by the former city nazim,” acting KWSB chairman Haji Munawar Abbasi told Pakistan Today.
Usually, he said, the probation period of contractual employees is at least two years; however, the former city mayor, bypassing all the relevant rules, had regularised these appointees after a period of one year.
“The decision regarding cancellation of these illegal appointments would be made by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah or the local government minister, the head of the KWSB,” he added.
Sindh government’s axe set to strike 7,500 KWSB employees?
