November 20, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 09, 1428

MUZAFFARGARH, Nov 19: Parents of many female candidates applying for the teachers’ posts at Workers Welfare School have strongly criticised the interviewers’ behaviour, alleging some of them made objectionable remarks about the interviewees.

Dawn learnt that Social Welfare Department advertised four teaching positions and sought applications from graduate women and men.

According to a department official, some 4,500 applications were received against the posts, out of which only 700 were considered for the interview.

Some candidates alleged they received the call letters form the department on the day of interview.

Many female candidates and their parents, requesting anonymity, alleged the five-member interviewing team acted non-seriously and some of the members asked ‘immoral’ questions from female candidates.

They alleged the interviewers praised dresses of some of the candidates and passed comments about how they looked, which made them nervous.

A candidate, Tabbasum, said the interviewers asked her to recite Namaz Janaza, a question which was not related to the nature of the job for which she had applied.

She alleged some members cracked jokes which showed they were not interested in

serious evaluation of the candidates and were just having good time Abdul Majid, Tehsil secretary general of PML-Q, said his daughter was MSC but the team rejected her saying only candidates having Bsc qualification were being considered for the posts.

Parents and guardians of some of the candidates staged a demonstration outside local Press Club to protest against the behaviour of the interview team, demanding the candidates should be re-evaluated in a transparent manner.

When contacted, a team member, Labour Officer Masroor Shah, denied the allegations and said no such incident occurred. He claimed the interviews were conducted seriously and no member digressed from his assigned role.

Community Development EDO Khair Mohammad Budh was not available for comments.