ISLAMABAD: Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, the Sindh government has posted several blue-eyed professors and lecturers on irrelevant seats in the Education Department, knowing that they neither have the required degree nor the technical expertise for the slots at which they working.
According to documents available with Daily Times, assistant professor of political science, Zahid Ahmad, is working as the ‘litigation officer’ and dealing with judicial matters of the department for the last few years, while another assistant professor of mathematics, Qazi Arshad, is working on deputation as the deputy director (audit).
The Supreme Court in its judgement of Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal (CPLA) 89/2013 had clearly directed the Sindh government departments to send all the officials working on deputation to their original position in thier parent departments.
Following the said SC decision, dozens of officers of different provincial departments were sent back to their original positions in their original departments.
Assistant Professor Qazi Arshad was also sent back to his original position of teaching. However, due to his political connections, the Education Department gave him the charge of deputy director (audit).
On the other hand, newly appointed Education Secretary (Colleges) Dr Riaz Memon, instead of sending back Assistant Professor Zahid Hussain to his original position of teaching, again issued an order on December 21, 2016, allowing him to look after the legal matters of the department as a litigation officer.
An officer of the Sindh Education Department informed Daily Times on the condition of anonymity that there was a judicial section already in operation at the Sindh Education Department, working directly under an additional secretary. He said that in the presence of this section, there was no need of assigning any person for judicial matters.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested Assistant Professor Qazi Arshad on January 5 this year due to his alleged involvement in corruption in affairs of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK), where he was working illegally as secretary on deputation and own pay scale (OPS) in an upper grade.
However, the matter of Qazi Arshad’s arrest in the corruption case was reported neither to the higher authorities of the Sindh Education Department nor to the Sindh government.
According to the Sindh government rules, any officer charged with corruption should be suspended and served a show-cause notice.
Dr Nasir Ansar, director general of colleges, Sindh, told Daily Times that the charge of litigation officer had been assigned to Assistant Professor Zahid Hussain because he held an LLB degree.
However, Ansar avoided replying when asked how a teacher – in presence of clear SC orders and a judicial section of the department – could be assigned a work other than his original work.
About the arrest of Assistant Professor Qazi Arshad in a corruption case, the DG said that ACE officials did not officially inform the department about his arrest, but after media reports he (DG) wrote to the higher authorities, asking them to transfer Qazi Arshad to any college until the finalisation of the corruption case filed against him.
Education Secretary Dr Riaz Memon almost repeated the same version like his subordinate, and told Daily Times that matters of both the teachers was in his knowledge.
Secretary Memon cleared that Assistant Professor Zahid Hussain had experience of dealing with legal matters so he had assigned him the charge of litigation officer, as according to him, the judicial section was working only for the School Education section. “This is not a violation of the Supreme Court orders, this is just an internal arrangement.”