KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet on Wednesday lifted a ban it imposed last year in August on recruitment in the provincial government departments.

The then cabinet in its meeting on Aug 11, 2023 had imposed a complete ban on recruitment for the caretaker government. Before that ban, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan had moved the Sindh High Court against the provincial government’s plan to fill thousands of vacancies without completing required formalities and on its request the SHC had granted a stay order on recruitment in government departments from grade 1-15 across the province.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, while chairing the cabinet meeting, asked the provincial chief law officer to get vacated the stay order of the SHC against the recruitment.

Official sources said that the cabinet members told the chief minister that there were thousands of posts of lower grades lying vacant in government departments, saying that the lifting of ban on recruitment would not only improve the working but the youth would get employment opportunities.

Allows appointment of govt schoolteachers through Sukkur IBA

Approving the lifting of the ban with the consent of the cabinet members, the chief minister directed Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar and the advocate general to pursue the case in court and get the stay order issued against the recruitment vacated.

Meanwhile, the at the request of Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah the cabinet allowed the school education department to continue the recruitment process of Prime School Teachers (PST) and Junior Elementary School Teachers (JEST) in accordance with the Teachers Recruitment Policy 2021 through the Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur.

Extension granted

Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal told the cabinet that the health department had appointed doctors, nurses, skilled and supporting staff on a “service rendered basis” for 89 days in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Subsequently, on the recommendation of the health department the Covid-19 doctors and nurses were given extensions in their hiring period from time to time up to June 30, 2023.

Acting on SHC’s order, she said, the health department had on March 17, 2023 referred the cases of 824 doctors and 324 staff nurses to the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) to ascertain their suitability.

The minister said that the SPSC had recommended only 260 suitable nurses out of 324 and the results of doctors were still awaited.

The cabinet, on the recommendation of the health department, approved another extension in the contract of 705 doctors and nurses for a further period of one year i.e. from July 2023 to June 2024.

The extension of 374 technical and supporting paramedical staff and 2,957 skilled and supporting human resources from April 1, 2023 to June 2024 was also approved as per the recommendation of the scrutiny committee.

The CM also approved an amount of Rs2.03 billion to pay their salaries during 2023-24.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2024