KARACHI, March 23 The Sindh government has amended the recruitment rules for the post of director-general of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), it is learnt here reliably.

According to sources, the rules have been amended so that more people, with different qualifications, could qualify for this highly technical post, whose occupant is responsible for keeping the environment of the province free from pollution.

The experience required has also been increased from three to five years than the experience required under the old rules.

Sources said that a new tenure-specific restriction had also been introduced in the new rules which had been formulated after 15 years of formulation of the old rules, making the filling of the vacancy by promotion slightly difficult.

Initial recruitment

Sources said that the old rules — notified on October 3, 1994 — clearly mentioning the qualifications for the recruitment through initial appointment, say that the person should have a PhD in environmental engineering from a recognised university with seven years of experience in research/management project dealing with pollution-control practices relating to air, noise, water, solid and hazardous wastes.

A person having a postgraduate degree in environmental engineering with at least second division from a recognised university having at least 10 years of experience in research and management of projects dealing with pollution control practices relating to air, noise, water, solid and hazardous wastes was also qualified for the post, under the old rules.

The new rules — notified on January 17, 2009 — mentioning qualifications/experience for initial appointment, say that the person should have a PhD in environmental engineering or environmental sciences from a recognised university with at least 10 years of experience — earlier only seven years were required under the old rules — in research or teaching and management of projects pertaining to environmental issues, specially environmental protection and resources management.

A person having a postgraduate degree in environmental engineering or environmental sciences from a recognised university at least in second division with at least 15 years of experience — earlier it was 10 years —with environmental issues especially environmental protection and resources management also qualifies for the post, under the new rules. The age of the candidate should be between 40 years and 50 years in both the cases.

Promotion

The second mode of appointment is through promotion.

The sources said that under the old rules a person from among the directors (technical), BPS 19 having at least 17 years in BPS 17 and above or 12 years experience in BPS 18 and above or the length of service as prescribed by the government, could qualify and could be promoted and posted as the Sepa director-general in BPS 20.

The sources said that under the new rules the second procedure for qualifying for the post of Sepa DG was through promotion.

The rules say that the person could be promoted from among the directors (technical) or directors (laboratory) in BPS 19 of the Environmental Protection Agency of Sindh, on a seniority-cum-fitness basis and having at least five years of experience as such could qualify to become a Sepa director-general.

The sources said that the condition — introduced under the new rules notified by Sindh environment secretary Mir Hussain Ali — that a person should have at least five years of experience of working as a director before qualifying for the post of the director-general was person-specific as it blocked the upward movement/promotion of incumbent Sepa director Naeem Ahmed Mughal for at least a few more years.

The sources said that under the old rules the first choice for appointment to the post of Sepa DG was through promotion and if no person was available then by initial recruitment, while under the new rules preference had been given to initial recruitment while the method of appointment through promotion had been kept at the second position.