KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has removed the chairman of Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) and the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE-Mirpurkhas) from his post by declaring his appointment illegal. The court observed that the basic process of appointment of Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, who has been tasked to simultaneously run both the education boards, by way of deputation lacked transparency and legal support. A two-judge bench of the SHC circuit court Mirpurkhas, comprising Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon and Justice Amjad Ali Bohio, declared the impugned appointments as illegal and without law authority and ordered the provincial authorities to repatriate Mr Shah to his parent department forthwith. A petition was filed impugning the appointments and after hearing the parties concerned, the bench in its judgement said that as per record, Mr Shah was a BS-20 officer of Federal Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education Islamabad and in May last year his services were requisitioned directly by services, general administration and coordination department on the directive of chief minister Sindh. SHC rules Zulfiqar Shah was heading Karachi and Mirpurkhas boards simultaneously without legal cover Thereafter, in August last year he was posted as chairman BISE-Mirpurkhas on deputation basis for one year or till appointment of regular chairman, but the story did not end there as in August this year he was appointed as chairman of BIEK on deputation basis with additional charge of chairman BISE-Mirpurkhas as a stop-gap arrangement, it added. The bench in its judgement also said that the controlling authority has power to appoint chairman, secretary and controller examination by following the recommendation of search committee through a competitive process. However, it further observed that it was not mentioned in the Sindh Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Ordinance, 1972, that the controlling authority has power to directly requisition the services of an employee of federal government as search committee has been given the mandate to recommend the chairman by majority view through a competitive process. Besides, the bench noted that deputation from federal government can only be allowed if the candidate met the criteria so set forth by the apex court in its judgements handed down in the cases of Ali Azhar Khan Baloch versus the province of Sindh (2015 SCMR 456) and Ghansham Das vs the government of KPK (2024 SCMR 188). “Since there is no mandate with the government of Sindh/controlling/competent authority of board to appoint respondent No.3 [Mr Shah] as a candidate for post of chairman BIE Karachi via requisition through (SGA&CD) government of Sindh, therefore the basic process of appointment of the respondent No.3 by way of deputation lacks transparency and legal support under the law; therefore, the appointment of the respondent No.3 as chairman BIE Karachi as well as chairman BISE Mirpurkhas is hereby declared as illegal and without lawful authority, and set aside the requisition of the service of respondent No.3 vide order dated 10-05-2023. Respondent No.3 is directed to be repatriated to his parent department forthwith”, it concluded.