When it comes to pointing out fingers over appointments, Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah asked his party’s former ally the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) whether they had agreed to follow the ratio of 60:40 on urban-ruler quota while making politically-motivated recruitments in the defunct City District Government Karachi (currently Karachi Municipal Corporation) and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).
This serious issue was kept under the carpet by both the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the MQM and was believed to be a part of the “reconciliatory politics” of President Asif Zardari. However, the issue surfaced after the former ally parted ways with the ruling PPP.
The MQM opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly Syed Sardar Ahmed raised the point while CM Qaim was reading out the five year services report before the House on Monday, saying that the PPP had not followed the agreed 60:40pc job quota for urban-rural population, and they stood illegal.
Interestingly, the CM intercepted the opposition by saying that the recruitments in the departments were made through competitive exams conducted by the Sindh Public Service Commission, IBA and the Sindh University, and inductions were made on merit only. “Had the MQM complied with the 60:40 urban-rural job quota while making recruitments in the CDGK (defunct) and the KWSB”, the CM asked the opposition in rude tone.
Sources in the water utility told Pakistan Today that at least 12,600 appointments were made in the tenure of coalition partners in two institutions, namely KWSB (7,500) and defunct CDGK (5,100), putting extra burden utilities’ finances.
Interestingly, a couple of inquiry committees had also been formed in the past by the authorities concerned to take notice of the illegal appointments and send the politically-motivated appointees home. However, the former coalition partner had always resisted the move in a bid to provide support to its appointees.
In April 2008, Sindh Minister for Local Bodies Agha Siraj Durrrani had also instructed the KWSB Managing Director (MD) Ghulam Arif to submit a report in 90 days clarifying how these appointments were made during the tenure of the caretaker government and the CDGK.
After restoration of the commissioner system by the Sindh government recently, these politically-backed appointees were fearing their removal from the jobs as no one was there to support them, they said, adding that the ruling PPP had time and again pointed out the issue of illegal appointments in the water providing body. However, no action could be taken by the authorities concerned due to reconciliatory politics and strong resistance from the MQM, sources informed.
Furthermore, in December 2010, after the resignation of the MQM minister, the PPP leadership, in a haphazard manner, had taken a number of decisions which were later rolled back without any justification. The decision included revival of commissioner system that included restoring old status of Karachi and Hyderabad, taking control of educational boards from Sindh governor Sindh and other such measures.
Besides, the Sindh’s Local Government Department had instructed the KMC director payroll and the KDA to submit the details of basic data of all the employees drawing salaries from the KMC within 15 days so that this could be sent to the authority concerned for compilation of employees’ data.
Moreover, the departments were directed by authorities concerned to fill the name, designation with basic pay scale, CNIC number, date of birth, date of appointment, posting department, CNIC number of any relative for confirmation and relations with him in different columns and to send this to Senior Director Human Resources Management Najmuddin Sikandar, while salary bills of those employees would be printed who possessed the correct CNIC numbers and bank account.
“There are over 7,000 appointments made purely on political grounds in the past, particularly by the defunct CDGK’s City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal”, confirmed KWSB acting chairman Haji Munawar Abbasi while talking to Pakistan Today.
Usually, the probation period of contractual employees was at least two years, however the former city mayor Mustafa Kamal bypassed all the relevant rules and regularised these appointees after a period of one year, he added. “The decision regarding cancellation of these illegal appointments would be made by the CM Qaim or the Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani – head of the KWSB”, Munawar said.