The Sindh High Court (SHC) has set aside the transfer notification of the Malir Development Authority’s (MDA) former director general to the provincial local government department, and ordered that he would continue his service in the MDA.
The order came on a petition of Mohammad Sohail, who challenged the notification issued on October 19, 2022, transferring him from the MDA to the LG department. His counsel said the petitioner had been working as MDA additional director general in the MDA, and absorbed permanently in the MDA by the orders of the Sindh chief secretary on April 11, 2017.
He said that before his absorption in the MDA, the petitioner had been placed under surplus pool through a notification dated October 4, 2016. The petitioner has served in the MDA during his entire career and had been promoted to grade 20, he added, and he cannot be transferred to any other department because employment in the MDA is non-transferable.
The provincial law officer and the LG counsel said the petitioner had been appointed at grade 16 in the East District Municipal Corporation (DMC), and since he had not been an MDA employee, he had rightly been transferred.
They said the petitioner had been wrongly absorbed in the MDA, as he had been repatriated pursuant to the orders passed by the Supreme Court in the case of Ali Azhar Khan Baloch, so he is required to report to the East DMC.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Saleem Jessar said the petitioner had been appointed in the East DMC at grade 16, following which his services had been handed over to the MDA, where he had been promoted to grade 20 in accordance with the MDA Rules.
The court said that pursuant to the judgment in the Ali Azhar Khan Baloch case, the petitioner had been repatriated, but since no vacancy in grade 20 had been available in the City District Government Karachi, the petitioner had been rendered surplus vide a notification issued on October 4, 2016.
The court said the CS had permanently absorbed the services of the petitioner as additional director general (BS-20) in the MDA by exercising his powers under Rule 9-A of the Sindh Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion & Transfer) Rules, 1974.
The court said that since the petitioner’s permanent absorption in the MDA, he has been an MDA employee, and under the MDA Rules, MDA employees are non-transferable, so the petitioner’s transfer through the impugned notification is without any legal authority.
The court said that under the MDA Rules, only the post of director general can be filled by the Sindh government. Allowing the petition, the court set aside the impugned transfer notification, and ordered that the petitioner would continue his services in the MDA.
