KARACHI, Oct 31: The Sindh High Court admitted on Friday two writ petitions involving rejection by the chief minister of the provincial public service commission’s recommendations in respect of 131 female and four male medical officers for the population welfare department and re-advertisement of the vacancies.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed restrained the provincial government and the Sindh Public Service Commission from proceeding with fresh recruitment of medical officers in pursuance of the advertisement of Oct 10 seeking fresh applications for the same posts till the disposal of the petitions.

The court had earlier in September ordered that the government should either accept the SPSC recommendations and issue the petitioners appointment letters or pass a speaking order rejecting them within a month.

Nineteen of the successful candidates, who had applied for the vacancies in 2006, filed two more petitions when they learnt that the chief minister had since rejected the SPSC recommendations and that the posts were being re-advertised.

As the fresh petitions came up for hearing, Advocate-General Mohammad Yusuf Leghari submitted that the CM in his capacity as the competent authority had exercised his power under Section 7 of the SPSC Act. He was duly empowered by the law to disregard the SPSC recommendations in respect of any vacancy and the posts had since been re-advertised.

Representing the petitioners, Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh argued that the court order of September was not placed before the CM otherwise he would not have ignored the SPSC recommendations without hearing the affected candidates. There was no mention of the court order in the summary approved by the CM. He said the CM was a lawyer himself and would not have disregarded both the SPSC recommendations and the court order had he been apprised of the facts of the case.

Admitting the petitions, the bench issued notices to the chief secretary and the population welfare department for November 11 and restrained them from proceeding further with fresh recruitment.

Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, meanwhile, barred a CNG station on plot 140-A, Block 2, PECHS, from operating. Allowing applications moved by the owners of adjoining plots and Shehri, a non-governmental organization, through Advocates Mohammad Zahid Khan and Naimur Rahman, the judge observed that the plaintiffs had made out a prima facie case that the installation of the CNG station in a residential area was against the relevant rules and an interim injunction should be made to bar its operation.

The plaintiffs’ counsel argued that the plot was commercialised in violation of the Karachi Town Building and Town Planning Regulations, 2002, and the Change of Land Use and Master Plan Bye-Laws, 2003. No public hearing was conducted before commercialisation.

The plot was situated 170 feet from the junction of the Kashmir Road and Iqbal Road and could not be utilised for raising a CNG station. Bye-Law 7 prohibited the use of converted plot for storage of dangerous articles and inflammable material. There were schools in the vicinity and students would also be at risk besides the residents.