‘Ineligible’: Lecturers get cushy jobs, foreign travel

Six female lecturers appointed in violation of rules, getting special favours.

LAHORE:

Six lecturers have been sent on attachment to a special unit in the Higher Education Department in violation of various rules and regulations and are receiving special favours, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The lecturers were recruited in 2012 on five-year contracts. As non-regular employees, they are ineligible for ex-Pakistan leave or for being transferred from their first postings. But the six lecturers, all women who were posted to various colleges outside of Lahore, were sent to the Higher Education Department on attachment to join the special unit.

One of them is currently studying abroad, having left without permission. Another visited Dubai for a conference in the first week of December, again without the permission of the authorities.

According to budget documents, there are 21 section officer (BS-17) posts in the department and 20 per cent (four posts) of these are reserved for lecturers as a technical quota. But 16 of the section officers are from the teaching cadre, said an official with knowledge of the department.



The six lecturers were appointed to the special unit on the requisition of Shahid Zaman, the additional secretary of the Planning and General Wing, the official said. They are getting several perks including free transport, laptops and furnished offices, he said.

“The unit has no work. It is just a place where they can relax, chat with each other and have refreshments,” he added. “They use staff cars and drivers and attend official meetings they have no business being in. They misbehave with senior colleagues because they feel they are special. They have even asked other colleagues to try to join the unit, telling them they would be sent abroad for higher education on scholarship.”

One of these lecturers, Umay Habiba, who served as the personal staff officer to the additional secretary, went abroad in October for higher studies, without permission. There was also an apparent attempt to get her education paid for by the state.

After she left, the department prepared a summary for scholarships to lecturers, said the official. The summary was rejected, but another summary was later sent to the chief minister for 10 PhD and two master’s scholarships, the latter to be given out for this fiscal year. The summary was approved and Habiba was among the candidates to get a scholarship. But the secretary, suspecting that there was some favouritism or nepotism going on, intervened and decided to delay the award of scholarships till next year

Shahid Zaman, the additional secretary, denied that the unit had no work to do. He said that the lecturers were working on the Punjab government’s Knowledge City project, on developing the department’s website and on an online admissions system. He said that he had selected them on the basis of their output and there was no gender bias in their hiring.

Asked how Habiba managed to go abroad without permission, Zaman said that there were hundreds of such cases. He said that he was not aware if the department would take disciplinary action against her.

During a visit to the special unit office, the lecturers told The Express Tribune that they were just doing the work assigned to them by their boss and were there on attachment.

The lecturer who went to Dubai for a conference without the permission of the department secretary said that she had been sent by her boss and had nothing else to say.

They refused to comment further. Higher Education Secretary Tariq Mehmood Khan said that he had recently taken charge of the department.

He said that he had noticed that “something fishy” was going on in the department, but did not elaborate.

He said that he was not aware that two of the lecturers had travelled abroad without permission and pledged to proceed against them under the law.

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