The Sindh High Court (SHC) has declared that the recommendations of the search committee that was formed for the appointment of unsuccessful candidates for the posts of secretaries and controllers of examinations at matriculation and intermediate boards in five provincial districts were without any lawful authority, and ordered the competent authority to hold fresh interviews of only successful candidates for the posts.
The order came on the petitions of Mushtaq Ahmed Sangrasi, Muzaffar Jamil Mirza and Syed Umair Ahmed, who impugned the recruitment and exams process started by the Sindh Universities & Boards Department for the posts of secretaries and exams controllers of the province’s secondary and higher secondary education boards on the grounds that the exams process was compromised to accommodate beneficiaries and private respondents with influence or those selected for extraneous consideration.
The petitioners’ counsel said vacancies for the posts of secretaries and exams controllers for the matric, inter and technical education boards in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana were advertised in various newspapers.
He said MCQ tests for the posts were taken by the Institute of Business Administration on July 28, 2019, adding that none of the candidates, including the petitioners, scored the 50 per cent pass percentage to be eligible for an interview.
The counsel said that to extend favours, the competent authority constituted a search committee with the sole object to ensure the selection of candidates of their own choice.
He said the committee was not mandated to shortlist unsuccessful candidates, but it shortlisted such candidates by reducing the pass percentage from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.
