Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: Widesp- read irregularities in the transfer and postings of teachers in district education office Rawalpindi have surfaced, exposing political interference and influence exercised by members of the assemblies and the PML-N leadership, rendering the entire process of postings dubious.

The scores of affected teachers have threatened to resort to courts over the sheer breach of norms of merit in the process of transfers and postings.

In order to win the favour of the political leadership, EDO Education Rawalpindi, Qazi Zahoor ul Haq, sidelined the respective officers and staff and assigned the matters of transfers and postings to the DO Elementary (female) Shahida Hashmi and the DO Elementary (male) Akram Zia.

They broke all the record of irregularities and issued orders for posting three teachers against one seat meant for just one teacher.

The Education Department sources dubbed all the irregularities committed in the matters relating to the postings and transfers as political interference.

Sources said that Senior Provincial Minister, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, took notice of the matter of transferring over 50 per cent teachers from Murree to other tehsils including Rawalpindi on political grounds and directed the concerned quarters to suspend their transfer orders.

Sources said that with the lifting of ban on the postings and transfers of teachers, which was in place for the last several years, thousands of teachers from district Rawalpindi filed applications seeking transfers to the station of their choice.

The EDO Education assigned the responsibility for conducting a scrutiny of the applications and working out a merit list to the DO Elementary (female) Shahida Hashmi and the DO elementary (male) Akram Zia. The work for scrutinizing the applications and preparing the lists was done at Government High School Morgah and the Muslim High School Saidpur Road instead of the EDO office or the respective Dos’ offices.

Former MNA, Hanif Abbasi and PML-N the Rawalpindi leadership ignored the deserving applicants and placed their focus on the transfer of their favourite teachers. They got transferred teachers who were residents of other tehsils to Rawalpindi in order to jack up their vote bank. This way the transfer orders of three to four teachers were issued against one seat.

According to the affected persons, a large number of teachers from Murree and Kotli Sattian were posted in the schools at Rawalpindi. On the other hand bribe was demanded from the teachers who were not backed by any political figure or who were kept in the dark under one pretext or other.

The unannounced change was made in the date for displaying scrutiny lists. The final lists which were prepared two weeks back were deferred to September 26 because of the polls in PP-7 so that no negative impact fell on the election campaign due to the teachers whose applications for transfer were rejected.

Later the Education Department schools Rawalpindi finalised the lists of transfer applications on September 29 and put all these lists on display in the offices of deputy DEOs elementary (male) besides issuing a schedule for receiving objections regarding the lists on the same day.

Orders for inter district transfers were to be issued and the adjustment of teachers promoted according to the service formula was to be made on October 3 but it still stands far from materialisation.