Over 10 top slots vacant in Sindh bureaucracy creating uncertainty

Managing administrative affairs and ensuring smooth working have become a herculean task as more than 10 important departments in Sindh are currently without their heads, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

In this scenario, other secretaries have been given the additional charge of these departments as making appointments on the vacant posts is a challenge for the provincial government.

Moreover, one of the senior bureaucrats – former local government secretary Roshan Sheikh – is currently in jail in connection with a NAB reference. The matter pertains to illegal allotment of land in Karachi.

However, both of them have been shown among those waiting for posting in the government record as Tameez-ud-Din Khero and Muhammad Razi-ud-Din are also on the same list.

Similarly, former energy secretary Agha Muhammad Wasif Abbas is in hiding after being nominated in the fake accounts case.    

Departments like information, livestock and fisheries, public health engineering and human rights do not have permanent secretaries while the posts of administrator Karachi and DG population welfare are also vacant.

Similarly, there is no one to head the implementation department, provincial local government election authority and the chief minister’s inquiries, inspection and implementation team.

So how and who is managing the show? It is Forest and Wildlife Secretary Dr Badar Jamil Mandhro with the additional charge of the human rights department.

The details of other officials leading other departments or assigned the task of running the affairs of additional posts are given as:

Secretary Works and Services Imran Atta Soomro (information), Secretary Social Welfare Muhammad Nawaz Sheikh (chairman of chief minister’s inquiries, inspection and implementation team), Secretary Services and General Administration and Coordination Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo (implementation), Minorities’ Affairs Saeed Ahmed Awan (public health engineering). 

Secretary Culture and Tourism Ghulam Akbar Leghari (livestock and fisheries), Additional Secretary Population Welfare Rehan Iqbal Baloch (DG population welfare) and Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Ahmed Shalwani (administrator Karachi).