Education: Judge threatens with order if irregularities not fixed

Petitioners say appointments were made in violation of policy.

LAHORE:

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court on Friday directed the Toba Tek Singh EDO (education) to fix irregularities in appointing educators otherwise he would pass an order which would affect other appointments.

The judge issued the order on a petition filed by four candidates who had applied for educator positions in Biology and Chemistry.

Petitioners Talib Hussain, Zunaira and two others submitted that the Education Department had announced hiring in November 2011 and finalised appointments on April 2, 2012. They said the EDO had not followed the policy for appointments adopted in other districts which had affected many deserving candidates.

They said the department should have made appointments after assessing the aggregate on the basis of their marks obtained in BSc Honours exams instead of the aggregate on the basis of credit hours. They said the aggregate based on credit hours had resulted in them and 16 other candidates not qualifying for selection. They prayed the court to direct the respondents to make their aggregate on the basis of marks obtained and not on the basis of credit hours.

The EDO said they had adopted the same policy as other districts in the province. He said the aggregate should only have been based on credit hours and not marks. Judge Shah, after going through the policy, said it was clear that the aggregate should be calculated on the basis of marks secured. The judge directed an additional advocate general to appear by the next date of hearing after taking instructions from the department concerned.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2012.