School Education: Dept Senior officer transferred in violation of rules

Additional DPI made Sheikhupura school principal against the policy

LAHORE:

A senior officer in the School Education Department has been transferred for raising voice against violation of merit in the appointments in the department.

Additional Director Public Institutions (DPI) Bilal Ahmed, the senior most officer in the list of BS 20 officers in the department, has been transferred and made principal of the Government Comprehensive Higher Education Secondary School, Sheikhupura.

Ahmed, who is due to retire on December 13, 2015, has written to the chief minister calling the appointment ‘a clear violation’ of rules.

The government’s transfer policy states “no person shall be transferred/disturbed within two years of his retirement”.

He said the Wedlock Policy too had been violated as his wife was working as headmistress at a government school in Lahore Cantt.

“I am the senior-most among 500,000 teachers of the School Education Department. On the seniority list of BS 20 officers, I am placed at top,” Ahmed said.

He said he had worked as additional DPI from May 2008 to September 2014.

“When the DPI retired from his post I was not considered for the slot despite being the senior most official after him. I filed a petition against the school education secretary for violating the merit. The petition is still pending… as punishment I have been transferred to Sheikhupura,” he wrote in the application.

“The executive district officer (EDO), my boss, there is junior to me. He is in BS 19. In Lahore, 13 posts of BS 20 are lying vacant in the in the SED.” He said the person appointed Schools DPI was 31st in the seniority list.

“I am 59 years old. As per rules, I am entitled to the last leg service compassion and deserve to be posted at the home station,” he said in the application. Ahmed said the education secretary had also ordered an inquiry against him.

“When I appeared before the inquiry committee, I was told that an employee, who had retired two years ago, had now filed an application against me saying that when I was deputy director in 1996, I had entered her house after scaling the wall and forced her to marry her.” He said she had filed the application after 18 years when she had turned 62.

“I request you to appoint some official from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to hold an inquiry into the matter,” Ahmed said. Schools Additional Secretary Riaz Ahmad said he had no knowledge about the application. He said he would look for it on Monday. The schools secretary refused comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2014.