RAWALPINDI: The Punjab education department on Thursday decided to implement all the transfer orders issued under the reallocation policy.

On the direction of the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench, the education department on Monday held a meeting with the representatives of schoolteachers to hear their grievances about the policy.

The teachers have been complaining that in the name of the reallocation policy over 1,000 educators had been transferred to far-flung areas.

Earlier, on a petition filed by the teachers, a single-member bench of the LHC had temporally suspended the implementation of the transfer orders and directed the secretary education to hold a meeting with the representatives of the teachers to know their viewpoints.

On Monday, deputy secretary education Mushtaq Ahmed Sial, on behalf of the secretary education, heard the schoolteachers’ grievances over the policy.

The secretary education, in a letter on Thursday, directed the executive district officer (education) to implement the reallocation policy.

In the letter, secretary schools Jabbar Shaheen told the EDO that after hearing the teachers’ complaints the department was of the view that there was no weight in the teachers’ grievances.

The secretary also directed the EDO to send a copy of the letter to the high court.

“Today, we received the letter of the secretary education and started working on the implementation of the transfer cases,” EDO Rawalpindi Qazi Zahoorul Haq confirmed to Dawn.

In reply to a question, he said the court had held in abeyance the transfer orders and authorised the secretary education to decide the matter.

He said before the court orders, a number of school principals refused to relieve the teachers for joining their new postings.

“We are also going to take disciplinary action against those principals who violated the reallocation policy,” the EDO said.

The teachers complained that the deputy secretary had assured them that their genuine issues would be resolved.

“It is shocking for the teachers’ community that hundreds of our colleagues, particularly female teachers, have been transferred to far-flung areas,” said Raja Shahid Mubarik, the president of the Punjab Teachers’ Union, Rawalpindi.

Around 300 teachers were transferred to areas 40 to 90 kilometres away from their home stations, he added.

“We condemn the secretary’s order,” he said and added that the teachers’ community would challenge the decision in the court.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014