A division bench, comprising Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Azizur Rehman, also issued notices to the provincial chief secretary and education secretary to submit their replies by the next date of hearing.
A group of the teachers challenged the formation of the new services cadre and took the provincial chief secretary, the chairperson of the provincial public service commission and the education secretary to court.
They said that they were serving in the education department as primary, secondary and language teachers and belonged to the Education Service Class-II’s administrative branch. They said that they could be promoted as headmaster, the district education officer and directors against the administrative posts.
They claimed that the provincial government had the support of a $400 million loan from the World Bank and had initiated the Sindh Education Sector Programme - where the authorities had introduced the Education Management cadre without taking the relevant people on board or considering its disadvantages to them.
Their lawyer, barrister Zameer Ghumro, said that the proposed draft was presented to the provincial chief minister for approval for redesigning, bifurcating and upgrading all posts in the department, blocking all the promotions to the higher secondary, secondary and language teachers.
On October 14, the education and literacy department’s secretary issued an official notification regarding establishment of the Sindh Education Management cadre, which replaces the Sindh Education Services of Administrative Branch by introducing new services named Sindh Education Executive and Sindh Education Management Service.
“The education secretary has no authority to create a new service because this power can only be exercised by Sindh Assembly,” argued Ghumro, adding that by creating new services the respondents have handed over the teachers’ community to the assistant commissioners and section officers, who have nothing to do with the education department. “This is a violation of Article 240 and 260 of the Constitution,” he said.
Ghumro pleaded the court declare the formation of the new service cadre as illegal. Till then the operation of the notification issued in this regard may be suspended, he also requested.
The judges issued notices to the chief secretary and the secretary literacy and education to file their comments by December 22. Till then, the operation of the notification will remain suspended.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2014.
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