KARACHI: Recruitment in education deptt on merit: Arbab
Karachi, July 10: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim said on Monday that the recruitment process in the Sindh education department was based on merit. Talking to newsmen in the office of Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro after paying a surprise visit to offices of the education department in the Sindh secretariat, he said they had selected 2,050 candidates on the basis of merit after scrutiny. He said if any candidate felt that there were discrepancies in the recruitment process, he could directly contact him.
He said the final list of candidates was based on results of the CBM written test conducted when Irfanullah Marwat was Sindh education minister. He said that this list was being published.
He said stern action would be taken if any official of the education department were found in any wrongdoing in this regard.
He said stern action was being taken to root out 'copy culture', ghost teachers and politicized unions from the education department.
He said he would continue to pay surprise visits to schools of Karachi and far-flung rural areas of the province.
He announced that in future invigilators from departments other than the education department would be hired to conduct recruit tests of teachers, so that teachers could be recruited on merit. He said that more teaching and non-teaching vacancies in the education department would be filled soon. He asked the secretary education to ensure strict implementation of two per cent quota for the disabled in recruitment in the education department.
Dr Arbab, in answer to a question regarding the electricity crisis in Karachi, said that the president and the prime minister had taken notice of it and now the situation was improving due to an increased power supply. He said the whole country was facing electricity shortage and demonstrations against power outages were held in Lahore also.
He said had dams been built or coal-fired power plant established in Thar, today the country would not have faced the power crisis.
He said regarding the Thar coal, Wapda and other companies had not fixed tariff rates. He said that President Musharraf had talked with the Chinese president on this issue. He said that the federal and Sindh governments were mulling over to set up a joint company to ensure use of Thar coal. He said royalty of Thar coal would be given to Sindh.
In reply to a question, he said that expansion and reshuffling in the Sindh cabinet was being mulled over. He said soon this expansion and reshuffling would be announced.
When questioned about the water shortage in Sindh, he said the irrigation department had reported 40 per cent water shortage.
He said he had instructed the department to take steps to improve the situation. He said
he had also appealed to the federal government to provide water to Sindh from its share as the province badly needed water for paddy crop.
Regarding increasing street crimes, he said stern steps were being taken to overcome it. He said he had sought daily reports from the DPOs.
Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro, Education Secretary Ghulam Ali Pasha, Principal Secretary Muhammad Ayub Shaikh and others were also present.—PPI
