Zubair Qureshi
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to present its criteria of inducting teaching staff from the provinces on deputation and explain what has barred the directorate from absorbing those teachers who fulfilled the criteria under the law.
Justice Miangul Hasan of the IHC made these remarks while hearing a number of petitions filed by dozens of teachers working in the FDE schools. They have challenged the FDE’s orders for repatriation issued recently.
These teachers have been ‘relieved’ on short notices and despite the fact that they had got No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their parent departments (some teachers have even got permanent NOCs) and finding no other forum to listen to their grievances they had moved a petition in the IHC to stop FDE from repatriating them.
In Friday’s hearing the court inquired the FDE officials and the state counsel what had prompted the directorate to repatriate a number of selected teachers and leave others and whether there was a quota for these teachers absorption in FDE schools.
The FDE representatives submitted that there existed a 10pc quote to induct teachers on deputation but there didn’t exist any such quota for absorption.
To this Asif Gujjar Advocate, one of the counsels for petitioners drew the court’s attention to a Supreme Court’s judgment of 1998 that had directed the Directorate to make a policy for the teachers. If there could be a 10pc quota for induction of teachers on deputation then there should also be a quota for their absorption, the SC had ruled.
Advocate Gujjar further informed the court that on the basis of that ruling, Establishment Division through an officer order absorbed a number of deputationists in 1999.
In the present case, the petitioners have been serving in the federal capital’s schools and colleges for years sacrificing their departmental promotions and other benefits, said Asif Gujjar and the FDE instead of absorbing them was sending them the repatriation orders to favour some influential persons.
