Abuse of power: Ignoring court orders, Sukkur education officer demoted for second time

A junior officer has been appointed to the post of BISE secretary.

SUKKUR: In what could be termed as abuse of power, the secretary to the chief minister for universities and boards affairs, Dr Riaz Ahmed Memon, has demoted an officer.

Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Sukkur, officer Ghulam Qadir Dharejo was moved from grade-19 to grade-18 and posted as a junior officer even though he was working as the inspector of colleges in grade-19 and also looking after the charge of the secretary.

On November 8, the secretary to the CM had issued a notification to promote grade-18 officer Abdul Razzaq Bhutto to the post of BISE secretary while Umer Farooq Pirzada, also an officer of grade-18, was given the charge of examinations controller.



These allegedly illegal orders sparked anger among the BISE employees, who staged a pen-down strike for four days, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the orders. The employees also demanded the removal of Dr Memon.

On November 12, Dharejo filed a constitutional petition to the division bench of Sindh High Court in Sukkur.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Qurban Malano, pleaded his client is a grade-19 officer and was already looking after the charge of secretary. He further pleaded that, in violation of the Supreme Court’s orders, Bhutto and Pirzada, who were junior officers, were promoted to the posts of secretary and examinations controller, respectively. This is not only against the rules but deprives his client’s right to promotion, he added. After this, the court cancelled the promotion orders.

The CM secretary was not one to give it a rest. On November 22, he once again issued a notification to demote Dharejo to the post of audit officer in grade-18 and Bhutto was ordered to look after the charge of the board’s secretary, in violation of SHC orders. BISE chairperson Syed Ghulam Mujtaba Shah was under tremendous pressure from the CM’s secretary to promote Bhutto, an official said.

Dharejo was promoted to the post of inspector of institutions in grade-19 in 2012. After the retirement of former secretary board, Dharejo was given the task to look after the charge of the secretary on September 27.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dharejo said that he was promoted to grade-19 by the board of governors and the controlling authority is not authorised to demote any officer of grade-19 without issuing a show-cause notice. He had approached the court earlier and it had cancelled the illegal orders. On Tuesday, his lawyer filed another petition, which was admitted by the court and fixed for hearing on November 27.

All Pakistan Clerks Association BISE Sukkur unit president Abdul Fatah Mahar said that it doesn’t fall under the purview of the secretary to the CM to demote the officer.

BISE Sukkur chairperson Syed Ghulam Mujtaba Shah said the secretary to the CM for boards and universities was not authorised to demote an officer of grade-19 to grade-18. He said the officer in question was promoted by the board of governors and only they could take such an action after fulfilling legal requirements.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.