Primary school teachers want their jobs back

Petition filed against Education Department for restraining teachers from performing their duties.

KARACHI: A constitutional petition was filed by Nazir Ahmed Noonari and 58 other primary school teachers against the Education Department for restraining teachers from performing their duties. The petitioners were appointed in 1995 with the recommendation of the District Selection Committee as BPS 7, but were later told to stop working.

On Monday, a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC), comprising Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Tufail H Ebrahim, ordered for a senior officer of the Sindh Ministry of Education to appear in court on Tuesday (today) regarding a letter ordering the reinstatement of more than four dozen primary school teachers of Thul, Jacobabad district.

According to petitioners, a reinstatement letter was issued to them on January 17, 2008 by the Education Department, but they are yet to be given their jobs back.

Earlier, the education deputy secretary had stated that the department had no record of the letter purportedly ordering the reinstatement of the petitioners. The bench ordered him to file a specific statement in this regard and also to get the signatory of the letter, Muhammad Hanif Nooria, to appear before the court.

The petitioners prayed to the court to order the respondents including education secretary section officer (IV) and the Education Department to implement the order of reinstatement passed by the competent authority.

The bench adjourned the hearing till Tuesday 8:30 am.

Separately, the same bench heard another petition filed by Ghulam Qadir Tanwari and 23 other primary school teachers of taluka Sakrand, district Nawabshah, against Sindh chief secretary, education secretary, Sindh accountant-general, EDO education and DO education for not paying the teachers their salaries. The bench issued pre-admission notices to respondents for an unspecified date.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2010.