Officials wrangle over hiring of teachers

MNA Aijaz Jakhrani chairs a meeting on the issue on Saturday.

JACOBABAD:

The game of musical chairs in Jacobabad where 3,000 teachers were hired for 150 vacant spots is about to get a lot messier.

When the deputy commissioner, Muhammad Rafique Buriro, found out that this had happened under his watch, he said that he would take the education officials to task and cancel all the appointments. But a teachers’ association said on Thursday that if he does so, he should be ready for a backlash.

Buriro had met the district’s education officers on November 12, telling them that all the appointments were illegal as none of them had been approved by him, as required by law.

Despite Buriro’s outrage, the district’s education officers have asked all the teachers to continue their duties, claiming that they had not received any suspension letters from the deputy commissioner since they met. The Government School Teachers Association in Jacobabad has now jumped into the fray, asking all the recent hires to submit documents as it might file a petition in the court against the deputy commissioner’s orders. The association said it will also organise protests against Buriro.

MNA Aijaz Jakhrani will chair a meeting on the issue on Saturday. “We will not cancel the appointments unless Jakhrani tells us to do so,” said education officer, Shan Mohammad Brohi.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2012.