Seven hundred people have been illegally appointed in the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) between grades 2 and 20 in the past four years, Pakistan Today has learnt. PQA sources said that the provincial quota was also not maintained while making the illegal appointments, whereas the appointees are unqualified and lack experience as well.
Majority of the illegal appointees belong to Karachi, whereas some officials of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), the Pakistan Machine Tool Factory (PMTF), the Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USCP) and the now defunct City District Government Karachi (CDGK) were also absorbed into the PQA without following proper procedure, the sources added.
They said that most of these illegal appointments were made on the orders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s former Ports and Shipping minister Babar Khan Ghauri. If a thorough investigation is conducted into this matter, this scandal could prove to be bigger than the National Insurance Company Limited scam and the Pakistan Steel Mills corruption case, they added.
Sources said that the matter of illegal appointments was brought to light when a sacked PQA officer, Abdul Jabbar Memon, had approached the Supreme Court after his dismissal. Memon also brought to light other illegalities of the PQA management regarding these appointments, the sources added. They said that the apex court took suo motu notice of the issue as well and directed the federal government to file comments in this regard with full record of appointments made during the past four years.
Over 90 percent of the appointments were made on the directives of Ghauri, and a total of 684 officials were appointed, whereas majority of these officials belong to Central and West districts of the city, ignoring the provincial quota of other provinces and the rural areas of Sindh, they added. Sources said that many officials of the KWSB, PMTF, USCP and the now defunct CDGK were appointed without consent of the Local Government Department and Sindh government.
For example, CDGK Law wing’s Saeed Akhtar was illegally absorbed into the PQA and he is now working in the PQA as a Transport Manager, they said.
Moreover, a close relative of Ghauri, Noman Khan, was initially appointed as a grade-18 instructor, but he was illegally reappointed as grade-19 Welfare Manager after 15 days, and then promoted to grade-20 in another 15 days, they added.
Sources said that Khan’s brother Muhammad Salman was appointed as a grade-19 Chief Engineer without a relevant educational degree or experience, and another brother Rehan Khan was appointed as a grade-18 Programme Manager.
Col (retd) Tanveer Farooqi was appointed as a grade-19 Transport and Security Director, even though his case was earlier rejected by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the sources added.
They said that Federal Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Faheem’s close relative Zameer Farooqi was appointed as a grade-18 officer. While applying for the job, Farooqi had said that he had worked for the Intelligence Bureau (IB) as an Assistant Director, but IB sources told Pakistan Today that Farooqi was a retainer agent (informant) for only three months, they added. It is pertinent to mention here that Memon filed an urgent application in the apex court on Monday for urgent hearing of the matter.
