Ports and Shipping DG removed

The Establishment Division has removed Ports and Shipping director general (DG) Vice Admiral (r) Azhar Shameem.
“There are more (bigwigs) to go,” officials at the Ports and Shipping Ministry told Pakistan Today on Thursday. They said with the clock ticking for the boards of directors of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT), PQA and PNSC, the days of KPT Chairman Javed Hanif Khan were also numbered.
The retired navy and military officers include PNSC Chairman Vice Admiral (r) Muhammad Shafi, Ports and Shipping Director General Vice Admiral (r) Azhar Shamim and PQA Chairman Brigadier (r) Saeed Ahmed Khan.
Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) chairman Dr Pervez Abbas and Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority (KFHA) managing director Abdul Ghani Jokhio were also removed.
The officials have been serving the above institutions for years on the basis of extended contracts.
Shafi took the helm of PNSC on February 28 this year. Earlier, the retired naval officer had served the PQA for almost three years from July 2010 to February 2013.
Brigadier (r) Saeed Ahmed Khan was working as a director general at the PQA before he joined the authority as a chairman on March 27. He had replaced Vice Admiral (Retd) Muhammad Shafi.
Former Joint Secretary of Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Dr Syed Pervez Abbas was working as chairman GPA since December 2011.
However, the Establishment Division, citing Rule OM No 6/2/2000-R-III in its March 15 letter to the auditor general, had stayed what it dubbed it an “objectionable” transfers and postings by then Federal Minister Babar Ghuari of Shafi, Shameem, Saeed Khan and Abbas, respectively, to PNSC, directorate of ports, PQA and GPA.
The sources at the Ministry of Ports and Shipping, however, said the Establishment Division by removing these high profile figures had acted in line with the Supreme Court’s Jan 31, 2011 verdict barring the appointment of retired government employees on contract.
“This ministry is too late in getting the apex court’s orders implemented,” said they said.
Asked to reason the terminations a board member at KPT put it this way: “Over 60 (age), contractual employees, violation of Supreme Court orders.”
An aide of Ports and Shipping Minister Kamran Michael said the terms of reference of the contract employees provided that the hiring authority of the contractual employees can terminate services of the appointees without quoting any reason.
The Establishment Division secretary is said to be the competent authority to make appointments on posts of Grade 20 and above.
However, officials at Ministry of Ports and Shipping said the Prime Minister Secretariat too was the hiring authority for the contractual government employees.
They said Nadir Khosa, private secretary to the prime minister, would soon be naming replacements to those removed. Currently, the “senior most” officials at the PNSC, PQA, GPA, KFHA and DG Secretariat would be supervising the day-to-day affairs of the concerned agencies, said he.
“The Establishment Division moved on the recommendations of the federal minister,” explained the official.
Another source close to Kamran Michael said more bigwigs were yet to go. “Certainly,” he said when asked if KPT Chairman Javed Hanif Khan, former Karachi DCO, would face the same fate.
Khan, he explained, was a government officer who could be repatriated to his parent organization but not terminated.
The source said that the dissolution of the boards of KPT, PNSC and PQA would be the next step. “This would not go beyond Eid,” he claimed. The dissolution work was taking time for legal hitches related to the institutions concerned. “KPT is a Trust, PQA an authority and PNSC a corporation. The ministry has working out its homework,” said the source.
He said the ongoing terminations were being undertaken in accordance with a list, prepared by the federal cabinet in its recent meeting, of high profile officials installed “illegally” in the said agencies.