KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Friday lashed out at the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led Sindh government for appointing Ziaur Rehman, a Grade-19 PMS officer and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s brother, as deputy commissioner for the metropolis’ Central district.
Soon after the news of Rehman’s appointment broke, leaderships of the ruling PTI and MQM-P termed the move a “tactic” to make the All Parties Conference (APC) successful.
Ziaur Rehman had been transferred from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and was “posted with immediate effect and until further orders as Collector/Deputy Commissioner, Central, Karachi, vice Farhan Ghani Khan, an officer of Ex-PCS (85-19),” a notification issued on Thursday read.
Ghani, on the other hand, was transferred and appointed as Additional Secretary, Local Government, and Housing Town Planning Department, the notification read.
It is pertinent to mention here that Rehman’s appointment has been made in one of the most important districts of Karachi.
Reacting to the appointment, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur, said Rehman was appointed against merit and without passing the required examination.
Senior MQM-P leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan said they reject the appointment of an officer from KP in Karachi. “More than 100,000 jobs were given on fake domiciles. The DC is appointed without the federal government’s notification.”
”Under which law has he been brought into civil services,” he asked, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan was running the assembly without “diesel”.
Moreover, PTI Karachi’s secretary-general Saeed Afridi remarked that the government of Sindh was in need of “diesel” for their expenses. Afridi said he believed that the appointment was done in a bid to make the opposition’s APC a success.
”The Opposition, after House No. 22 and the Kashmir Ministry, has found new ways to appease Maulana Fazl,” he said.
Responding to the criticism, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah said it was ”not a crime to be Maulana Fazl’s brother”.
”Ziaur Rehman has held administrative positions in KP,” he said, adding that the appointment was an administrative matter.
Responding to the criticism, JUI-F Senator Maulana Hafiz Hamdullah also termed Rehman’s appointment “an administrative matter”.
“What is so strange about Ziaur Rehman being posted as a DC in Karachi? Why are they so bothered about Ziaur Rehman’s appointment? Is it Ziaur Rehman’s fault that he is Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s brother?
“Ziaur Rehman has previously held administrative positions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab,” Hamdullah said, adding that he could be posted anywhere in Pakistan’s four provinces.
The JUI-F leader further spoke on the incumbent PTI-led government’s advisers and special assistants, noting how “half of them” were “dual nationals”.
“While dual nationals can sit in the cabinet, Ziaur Rehman is a Pakistani citizen,” he said.
