KARACHI: The Sindh High Court came down hard on the provincial government for posting 27 convicted officers of grade 17 and above on keys posts in different departments.

The court warned the secretaries of all departments of the provincial government that there must be no repetition in future to again commit such an illegality regarding posting of convicted officials.

They were also directed to file compliance statements through their focal persons on Nov 9.

At the outset of the hearing, the secretaries and focal persons of different departments were in attendance and informed the two-judge bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar that a director of education department was convicted but posted as the director-schools and then he was posted out.

Court seeks compliance report from provincial authorities regarding removal of all convicted officials

They further submitted that 10 convicted officers were posted in the revenue department and one in the forest department and they were removed from their posts.

Similarly, three convicted officers from the local government department, seven from irrigation department and one from excise department had been removed, they maintained.

The officials said that two officers, including the cane commissioner, of the Services, General Administration and Coordination Department (SGA&CD) were convicted and they had been removed/posted out and a convicted officer of the labour department had also been posted out.

The bench was informed that a policeman was also convicted upon which the focal person for the Sindh police undertook that he would not be posted until his conviction was set aside.

The additional services secretary assured the bench that all convicted officers/persons, even if released on bail, would not be posted in any department.

“It is regretful that despite convictions on charges of ‘corruption’, the government posted about 27 officers of grade 17 and above on key posts although convictions on such ‘charge’ always reflects upon credibility of the person unless it was/is always requirement of good order of service discipline that no such convict, be allowed holding post(s) where he directly holds command over matters of public, involving fundamental rights,” the bench ruled.

It further said that such obligations were always upon the government to ensure to public that those officers, dealing with their rights, were not only competent but also honest, however failure towards such obligations on the part of the government had compelled the court to pass orders in this regard.

The bench further said that the credibility of every public servant was of equal importance regardless of his/her grade as every government department was like a “machine” where every single part had to work honestly and diligently thereby making smooth functioning of the machine and thus, this order was applicable to all public/civil servants not limited to officers of grade-17 and above.

On the last hearing, the National Accountability Bureau through a compliance report informed the bench that 494 officers serving at different posts in the provincial departments had opted for voluntary return, 41 officers had entered into plea bargain with the anti-graft watchdog and around 60 convicted officers had filed appeal before the high court against their convictions while 108 corruption references were pending before the accountability courts against hundreds of officers.

Initially, two petitions were filed last year against the posting of some officers who returned embezzled money to NAB through plea bargain and VR. Later, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan lawmaker Kanwar Naveed Jameel had also petitioned the SHC stating that reappointment and promotion of around 500 officials who had entered into plea bargain and opted for VR with NAB had been made in several provincial departments in violation of the apex court’s judgement reported in 2016.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021