Controversial decision: Govt employees decry illegal promotions of junior officers

Protesters demand removal of secretary boards and universities.

SUKKUR: Employees of the Sukkur Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) staged a pen-down strike and sit-in to protest the illegal promotions of junior officers while ignoring seniors.

Under the aegis of All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA), BISE Sukkur unit president Abdul Fatah Mahar led the employees to boycot office work and carry banners against the decision. The protesters gathered in front of the board office and shouted slogans against the secretary of boards and universities, Riaz Ahmed Memon. The demonstrating employees were demanding withdrawal of these promotion orders and Memon’s removal. The protesters locked the main gate of the office and didn’t allow BISE chairperson Syed Ghulam Mujtaba Shah and other officers to enter.

Talking to The Express Tribune, APCA BISE unit president Abdul Fatah Mahar slammed Memon’s attitude, dubbing it as humiliating and condescending. The president stated that Memon insulted several BISE officers, including the chairperson.



He then said that Memon issued a notification regarding promotion of grade-18 officers Abdul Razzaq Bhutto and Umer Farooq Pirzada to the posts of secretary and controller of examinations, respectively. Ghulam Qadir Dharejo, a grade-19 officer, who was the acting secretary prior to Bhutto’s appointment was ignored for the position. Mahar condemned these promotions as “the murder of merit and seniority” and stated that Bhutto did not deserve the promotion. He  warned that the strike will continue until the Sindh chief minister removes Memon and withdraws the promotion orders.

The chairperson’s view

“I saw the sit-in when I arrived at the office today,” Shah told The Express Tribune. “I was forced to return home since the protesting employees refused to open the main gates for me.”

Mujtaba contacted Memon after this incident, who directed him to take action to end the protest but was not given a satisfactory answer when he requested the secretary to withdraw the promotions. “I requested Memon to withdraw the controversial promotion orders, especially since they are in violation of the Supreme Court order, which states that no junior officer can be promoted to a higher post over a senior office, but Memon refused to listen to me,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th,2013.