KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has advised the protesters demanding restoration of jobs to call off their agitation and wait till a verdict is passed by courts on their cases and ban on government jobs is lifted.

The government could not be blackmailed into accepting unjustifiable demands by staging protests and sit-ins because it was a question of the future of coming generations and Sindh, he said.

The provincial government as well as PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had decided not to compromise on merit and laid down procedure for the appointment of teachers, he said.

“The 12 officers of the education department who were found involved in making fake appointments have already been suspended and not assigned any posts,” he said.

Mr Khuhro said at a press conference in his chamber in the old Sindh Assembly building here on Thursday the teachers and non-teaching staff agitating on the road leading to the Bilawal House were those who were appointed in 2012-13 by some directors without taking into account available vacancies and merit and in violation of all rules. Some of them even managed to get postings and joined the service, he said.

But when he learnt of the irregularity after formation of new government their salaries were stopped and an inquiry committee was formed which termed all appointments bogus, without merit and in violation of rules without allocating funds and beyond number of the sanctioned strength, he said.

He cited the example of Karachi division, where 13,000 were recruited against only 1,500 available vacancies despite the fact that most of the applicants’ degrees and other documents were bogus.

After the government stopped their salaries, they went to the services tribunal where their appeals were rejected and then 83 of them filed their case in court, he said.

Mr Khuhro said that 63 out of 83 were not eligible for the offer letters issued to them while the documents submitted by 13 were bogus and three of them were those who had never attended any school in their entire lives. He said that not only in Karachi but also in Hyderabad 1,400 were recruited in violation rules and likewise in other divisions.

The minister said that when he informed the Sindh Assembly about the scam, the European Union, which was funding some educational projects, took its serious notice and threatened to stop funding.

The government had to use all its persuasive powers to win back EU’s trust and take corrective measures by suspending officials involved in the scam and stop salaries of such appointees, he said, adding only then the EU agreed to resume funding for the projects.

He said in response to questions that after the ban on new appointments was lifted the vacancies against which they were issued fake letters and those falling vacant due to retirement would be filled through NTS test.

If the agitating teachers wanted to get jobs in the education department, they would have to appear in the test and compete with others for the jobs, he said.

The minister said that he made two attempts to convince the participants of the sit-in to call off their protest for the sake of the future of coming generations and Sindh.

First, he went to see them at 3 am and they agreed to end the protest but when he left for home they changed their decision and continued the protest. He went to them again at 2 pm and requested them to end the protest but they refused saying they would not leave the place until a notification was issued, regularising their jobs and ordering release of salaries, he said.

He said as the principle of merit was linked with improved governance and future of generations, the government would not give in to any pressure. He had focused on reopening all closed schools. In Mirpurkhas division alone, 1,000 schools had so far been made functional, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2014