The Sindh High Court here Thursday issued arrest warrants for Chairman Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) and suspended the Secretary SPSC for non-compliance of its order.
The Hyderabad Circuit Bench of justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Saleem Jessar expressed dismay over disregard for the court by the SPSC’s officials.
The court was conducting a hearing of a petition concerning alleged irregularities in the appointments of the medical officers whose qualifying tests were conducted by the SPSC.
“The secretary in spite of clear directions neither brought the complete record pertaining to the case in hand nor has sworn the affidavit as per spirit of the aforesaid order and further his conduct while addressing the court was deplorable,” reads the order.
As per the order, Secretary Syed Atharullah Shah would remain suspended until the next date of hearing while the chairman would have to submit Rs.2 million bail amount to prevent his arrest.
The SHC had ordered at the last hearing on April 1 that both the chairman and secretary should be personally present at the Thursday’s hearing.
They were also asked to bring the entire record of the appointments of the BS-17 medical officers and BS-17 women medical officers over some 1,783 posts advertised on July 19, 2018, recruited for the Sindh Health Department.`
The secretary told the bench upon inquiry during the hearing that he had not brought the record and he also failed to justify the reason for non-compliance.
He apprised the court that the chairman SPSC was at the commission’s Hyderabad head office but he did not know why he did not attend the court.
The petitioner Dr Asma Makhdoom’s counsel advocate Sajjad Ahmed Chandio apprised the court that the written tests for the said posts were held on December 9, 2018.
According to him, after advertising the posts on July 19, 2018, the SPSC issued a press release on November 14, 2018, and bifurcated the posts in question on the gender basis.
