Zubair Qureshi
Teachers on deputation Wednesday took to roads and staged demonstrations expressing their resolve to resist pick and choose policy of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) that has handed them repatriation orders. This was the second protest by teachers in less than a month in the federal capital.
Earlier, teachers from Punjab had demonstrated on Dec 19, 2020 outside Banigala calling for regular jobs.
In the present case, the FDE has issued relieving orders to 52 male and female teachers who have spent years teaching at Islamabad schools and some of them located as far as Talhar and Nilore.
FDE has done this in utter disregard of teachers’ services and directed their principals and the area education officers (AEO) to relieve them with immediate effect.
Protesting the orders by the FDE lady teachers along with their children and members of family held a protest demonstration outside the National Press Club and appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood and HR Minister Dr Shireen Mazari to take notice and withdraw these orders as they had lost their right of lien back in their parent departments and had nowhere to go now.
Holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans like “Give Respect to Teachers” “Don’t separate teachers from their families,” these teachers of the federal educational institutions regretted the FDE Director Planning and a number of other senior officials had misled the new Director General Ikram Ali Malik and convinced him to send these teachers back to their parent departments.
Interestingly they presented names of certain ‘blue-eyed’ teachers who were not only absorbed in the federal schools but their date of absorption was made since the first day of their joining on deputation so that their seniority might not suffer.
Absorption of ‘less-privileged’ teachers has been pending despite the federal government’s clear orders in the government of PPP that 10 percent quota should be allocated for these teachers to be absorbed in the federal schools. If they cannot consider our case for absorption what was the criteria for absorbing those teachers taken in the past, they question-
ed.
Doesn’t this go against “One Pakistan” policy of Imran Khan government, they asked.
Later addressing a press conference, Muhammad Javed Swati one of the deputation teachers said the government followed the 10pc quote until 2009 but after that the process was stopped.
At present, there are around 400 teachers on deputation who have sacrificed their seniority and promotion for the sake of staying with their families and the federal government instead of acknowledging their services by absorbing them in the federal schools is now sending them back unceremoniously.
“Howe could the FDE be ungrateful by handing us relieving orders with the note that we are not eligible,” said one of the lady teachers with tears in her eyes. Is this the way our services are being recognized in Riasat-e-Pakistan that is going to become Riasat-e-Madinah according to Prime Minister Imran Khan, she further said adding “we have burnt our boats and will go to any limit unless the government withdraws relieving orders.”
