KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the provincial government to appoint chairman of the Sindh Text Book Board (STBB) after observing all the codal formalities in accordance with the law within two weeks.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar and Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon also asked the Sindh government to de-notify the incumbent chairman forthwith as he was appointed without any selection process.

It further ordered the provincial authorities that no ad-hoc arrangement be made in the intervening period regarding the STBB chairman’s post.

Expressing its resentment over government’s act of flouting the codal formalities, the bench noticed that Sindh government had not adhered to the constitutional command to fill the subject post and also overlooked the court’s earlier order to appoint a permanent chairman for the STBB.

“Unfortunately, the respondents continued to flout the orders and again and again posted the officer of their own choice, by resorting the cadre rules as discussed supra without a competitive process, prima-facie the reasons are obvious does not require to be repeated,” it added.

The bench issued such directives while disposing of a petition challenging the notification regarding appointment of Agha Sohail Pathan, an officer of Ex-PCS (BS-19).

The judgement, authored by Justice Memon, asked the government to make appointment against the post in question after advertising it and observing all the codal formalities as provided under the law.

It further said a provincial law officer contended that though the relief claimed in the petition had virtually become infructuous on the premise that petitioner had been nominated for the senior management course commencing from Jan 31, and he had accepted to join training for a certain period and the subject post could not be kept lying vacant for an indefinite period and insisted on the appointment of Mr Pathan.

The order said that in principle, the appointment made by the Sindh government on the subject post, without any advertisement or selection process cannot be considered to be a valid appointment.

Petitioner Pervez Baloch had challenged the notification and contended that he was still incumbent chairman of the STBB and a notification about his appointment was issued in May last year after the approval of the cabinet for a period of three years.

His lawyer, Zamir Ghumro, argued that the appointment of Mr Pathan was made without the approval of the cabinet and in violation of Section 4 of the Sindh Textbook Board Ordinance 1970.

Referring to Section 4 of the ordinance, the counsel contended that the chairman and other members of STBB must hold the office for a period of three years and were also eligible for re-appointment for one or more such terms.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2022