Possible contempt: SHC orders govt to pay 250 teachers in 15 days

KARACHI:

Two-hundred and fifty teachers have gone to court over their salaries, which the Sindh education secretary has been ordered to pay in a fortnight.

On Wednesday, a division bench of the Sindh High Court said that if their salaries are not paid for January to May 2010, the chief secretary, finance secretary and other officials have been ordered to appear in court. They could face contempt charges. The case was filed by a teacher named Ghulam Mustafa and 249 others, who argued that even though the court had ordered it, they had not been paid. Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar adjourned till September 28.  The petitioners were employed as “feeder teachers” under a new project aimed at achieiving a higher rate of literacy in Sindh’s ignored districts. They were later transfered to the district administration of Thatta but as the local bodies system was wrapped up, the Sindh government fired them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2012.