ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has requested the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) for permission to hire new contractual staffers in violation of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) directives, Daily Times has learnt. According to the documents available, the FDE wrote a letter to the CADD seeking permission for the hiring of as many as 140 new contractual teachers. The CADD has reportedly forwarded the request to the Establishment Division for final approval. The documents revealed that earlier the IHC issued a stay order on hiring of new staffers until the issue of daily wagers of the FDE was resolved. The ministry of CADD has given recommendation for hiring of 141 new teachers of different cadres, including 24 lectures of BPS-17 for FG colleges (both female and male), 81 male and female lectures of the same scale for model colleges and three senior teachers of the same rank. It also approved hiring of 22 trained graduate teachers (TGTs) in BPS-16 and 11 drawing masters in the same scale. “The FDE is facing an acute shortage of staff due to unavoidable circumstances and hence intends to hire new teachers against the vacant positions (of the above-said cadres) on standard terms and conditions as specified in such recruitment rules in Civil Servant Act, 1973,” reads the CADD recommendation. According to the available information, as many as 2,000 teachers of the FDE are performing their duties on daily wages. These teachers, on the other hand, announced boycotting the classes due to discrimination by the FDE. They said that the issue of regularising them was in the court while the directorate intended to hire new teachers. Earlier, almost all major forums, including the Supreme Court and standing committees, had given their recommendations in favour of these daily wagers. The teachers had also held many protests in this regard, but their fate is still hanging in the balance, while announcement of new hiring is like adding fuel to fire. Published in Daily Times, October 12th 2017.