Relief: Two prisons officers allowed to attend promotion course

They had moved LHC against ‘discrimination’

LAHORE: The prisons inspector general (IG) has recommended two assistant superintendents of jails (ASJs) for a mandatory promotion course at the National Academy for Prisons Administration (NAPA) after they had moved Lahore High Court (LHC) complaining that they were being discriminated against in this regard.

The IG has also recommended two more ASJs for the course. On Friday, the four ASJs joined the course that had started on February 7.

The IG had initially recommended 10 ASJs for the course; 15 ASJs are now attending the course. The NAPA had started the course for 21 ASJs after fulfilling legal requirements.

Unhappy with the earlier recommendation, ASJs Muhammad Asad Tariq and Malik Mahboob had filed a petition in the LHC on Thursday. On Friday, the court had issued a notice to the IG.

Their counsel Shoaib Saleem told Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh on Friday that his clients had been ignored for the course although they were eligible for it in terms of their seniority. He said the move would prevent their promotion as deputy superintendents.

The other two ASJs nominated for the course are Kashif Rasool from Lahore Central Jail and Malik Sarfaraz from the Sahiwal jail.

The counsel for Tariq and Mahboob confirmed that his clients had joined the NAPA on Friday after the court issued a notice in this regard. After the three-month course, the participants might be promoted as deputy superintendents in BS 18.

IG Farooq Nazeer told The Express Tribune that six months ago, he had asked the NAPA to arrange the course for 21 ASJs. Meanwhile, he said, 15 deputy superintendents were hired through the Punjab Public Service Commission.

Meanwhile, he said five DSJs had retired so that there was room for 10 ASJs to be promoted.

He said Tariq and Mahboob’s names had been dropped because they faced major penalties and an inquiry was pending against them. He said that after obtaining the Regulations secretary’s opinion, the department had allowed them to join the academy. He said the Regulations secretary believed that there was no bar on attending such courses on government employees facing penalties.

Nazeer said that officers could not be spared for training in large batches because there was a shortage of 115 ASJs across the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2016.