Job quota: Former minister defends 13,000 teachers’ appointments

A large number of these teachers have been protesting for their salaries at Boat Basin for over a week now.


Noman Ahmed September 12, 2014

KARACHI:


Former education minister Pir Mazharul Haq has defended the nearly 13,000 teachers' appointments made during his tenure, denying accusations that these appointments were 'illegal'.


The present education minister, Nisar Khuhro, had claimed that these 13,000 appointments were made illegally against merely 1,425 teaching posts during Haq's tenure.

"The bureaucracy has constantly been misguiding the education minister [Nisar Khuhro] as these appointments were made in a legal manner with the permission of Chief Minister House," Haq told The Express Tribune on Friday. "These teachers have been performing their duties regularly since the time of appointment but the bureaucracy has deprived them of salaries in the name of investigation. This is gross injustice."

A large number of these teachers have been protesting for their salaries at Boat Basin for over a week now. On Thursday, the Boat Basin police had booked around 50 of these 'illegally appointed' teachers of Sindhi language, physical training, drawing as well as workshop instructors, who tried to force their way to Bilawal House on Thursday night while protesting for their unpaid salaries since August 2012. Around 34 of these teachers were released later on personal bail.

Haq declared this police action 'condemnable' and 'barbaric'. "A few education department officials did mar the recruitment process through some illegal appointments but collective punishment should not be meted out to all the appointed teachers," he said.

The investigations into the illegal appointments in the education department carried out during Haq's tenure were initiated by the department's additional chief secretary, Dr Fazlullah Pechuho, who had formed an inquiry committee last year. The four-member committee had confirmed that thousands of illegal appointments were made in collusion with the education department's 12 officials, including Karachi education directors, Shamsuddin Dal, Attaullah Bhutto and Qasim Baloch.

"For a total of 698 Sindhi language teacher posts, these officials appointed 1,398 people," stated the report.

For his part, Khuhro had stated that the Pakistan Peoples Party government did not want to 'repeat the mistakes of its past' by accepting bogus recruitments. "Those education department officials did not feel shame as they even appointed 400 Bengalis and 200 Gilgitis to teach Sindhi."

"I have asked the protesting teachers at least thrice to end their sit-in and start preparing for the National Testing Service exam, which they would have to undertake to secure their jobs," Khuhro told The Express Tribune. "I assured them that the government is going to re-advertise the vacancies for 1,425 teaching posts in a month's time. They should take this opportunity and receive their appointment letters on merit."

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2014.

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