KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by a Senator of the Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment-Pakistan against the recruitment process on over 21,000 posts in various departments of the provincial government.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Agha Faisal observed that the petitioner was not personally aggrieved with the issues in question.

“While the learned counsel insisted that this matter merited indulgence in the public interest, however, we are constrained to observe that the present petition appears to be an attempt to seek publicity, without any justifiable cause of action.”

It stated that public interest litigation ought not to be aimed at seeking publicity and the law required the court to ascertain whether the supplicant was acting in a bona fide manner and such litigation should not be a mere adventure, an attempt to carry out a fishing expedition and/or to settle personal scores.

The bench in its judgement further said that petition primarily assailed the minutes of Jan 3, 2020 meeting of Sindh cabinet, a subsequent letter of the SGA&C department of the Sindh government and a memorandum of understanding.

It noted that an earlier petition seeking the same relief on identical grounds had been dismissed and, thereafter, this petition was filed albeit with a substituted petitioner and the lawyer was asked about maintainability of such petition on the very first date of hearing.

It further said that the counsel for the petitioner admitted that she was not personally aggrieved with the issues sought to be agitated, but submitted that the petitioner enjoyed a supervening privilege to invoke writ jurisdiction on account of being an member of parliament.

It was unequivocally acknowledged that while the MoU was assailed on the allegation of being non-compliant with the public procurement rules, however, no remedy pursuant to the said law or available otherwise had ever been invoked by the petitioner, it added.

The bench also noted that the lawyer had failed to make any case before the court to qualify the petitioner within the definition of an aggrieved person and no case could be set forth to justify the direct recourse to writ jurisdiction.

The MQM-P Senator, Khalida Ateeb, moved the SHC impugning two notifications issued by the provincial authorities in January and February 2020 to notify decisions of provincial cabinet and issuing directives to fill over 21,300 posts in more than 30 departments.

She contended that the respondents had no authority to issue the impugned notifications as they did it in violation of various provisions of the constitution and applicable laws.

The counsel for the petitioner contended that the recruitment against such posts from BPS-1 to PBS-15 was being made without inviting tenders, open competitive bidding, procurement plan and also not following relevant laws, mandatory provisions of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010.

The counsel further argued that both notifications and arbitrarily award of testing contract by way of signing of an MoU were in flagrant and blatant violation of mandatory procurement law and rules.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2023