Daily Times

Sindh Local Government Department (LGD) asked Lyari Development Authority (LDA) to submit services details of six executive engineers.

A letter was sent to LDA director general (DG) in this regard. The letter, which was issued on November 30, directed the DG to furnish tentative seniority list of all these engineering cadre employees from year 2004 till date within 30 days.

The letter advised that attested education and engineering degrees should also be submitted and verified by Higher Education Commission (HEC). Executive engineers serving different department of LDA under Basic Pay Scale-18 include Agha Muhammad Ali, Syed Asad Hussain, Syed Nafees Agha, Syed Raheel Ali, Yawar Mehdi and Syed Shabi-ul-Hassan.

Original record, complete service profiles, appointments, promotions along with recruitment rules, vacant post and posting orders in annotates form should be submitted in order to finalise inquiries of these officials. Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) was also asked to submit details of professional degrees of these engineers to the office.

These steps are being taken in line with the Water Commission (WC) directives to all civic entities. The commission had directed authorities to ascertain that all posts in these departments were being held by people who had an untainted educational record and professional degrees.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Hyderabad Water and Sanitation Authority, Karachi Building Control Authority and Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) are some of the other departments which were directed to verify that their employees were qualified enough to hold their respective positions.

It is pertinent to mention that a similar directive issued by Supreme Court (SC) is already in place to appoint officials in grade BPS-17 and onward.

Adbul Aziz Memon, an official with engineering background in Karachi Development Authority (KDA), has been serving as LDA DG and his appointment was reportedly approved by the Sindh Local Government Department (LGD). Reportedly, the said official is serving with additional office charges of Lyari Expressway re-settlement project and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Town in defiance of SC directives. It is worth mentioning that SC had already directed the provincial government to ensure that government officials were working in only their mother departments and did not hold positions elsewhere.

Meanwhile, LDA secretary, Mustafa Lashari said that the department would take due action after confirmation of testimonials of these engineers from educational institutes. A retired official of LDA on condition of anonymity claimed that there was no any criterion for maintaining seniority list in the department.

Published in Daily Times, December 14^th 2018.