CHAKWAL: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif claims to be revolutionising the education sector, but the real picture can be seen just by a single instance in Chakwal where educators are still waiting for their stalled salaries two years after their recruitment.

The Punjab government recruited 1,303 teachers in Chakwal district in April 2012 in grades BPS 9, 14 and 16.

The teachers found their hopes dwindling as their maiden pay got stuck which was due in September.

After five months, they were informed that their pay had come and thinking they were going to collect the pay of five months, they were shocked when they received the pay of only one month of August while the salaries of the remaining four months remained unpaid.

When all of their tries went in vain, they took the last option of knocking at the door of the provincial ombudsman.

The ombudsman, Javed Mehmood, after finding the teachers’ complaint valid directed the executive district officer (EDO) education to submit his reply. The EDO cited unavailability of funds as the reason behind non-payment of salaries.

The ombudsman then asked the EDO Finance and Planning, who stated that a summary for provision of funds amounting to Rs210.448 million (including Rs138.840 million) for the education department’s pending liabilities had been moved by the district coordination officer (DCO) Chakwal to the chief minister of Punjab.

However to date, the chief minister has not issued any order for the provision of Rs210.448 million sought by Chakwal DCO.

The ombudsman expressed his surprise at the reply of the EDO Finance and Planning. He directed the DCO Chakwal on December 16, 2013 to issue the stalled salary of educators within 30 days but the DCO failed to resolve the problem as according to him there is no money to pay the arrears of teachers.

The ombudsman had noted in his order that “non-provision of funds for payment of salaries is injustice to the employees which is tantamount to maladministration”.

He further observed that if the district administration Chakwal did not have funds under the head of salaries, then why were the teachers recruited.