CHAKWAL: A primary schoolteacher was dismissed from service for inefficiency and misconduct.

Mohammad Ishtiaq Hussain, a teacher at the Government Primary School in the Bhalla village, landed in trouble after his two students were filmed by a villager while selling oranges during school hours at the gate of the school on February 16. The video clip made by Husnain Iqbal, a councilor, went viral in the social media.

“What is the price of the oranges,” asks the man who filmed the students. “Two oranges for ten rupees,” the students say. In reply to another question, the students said the oranges belonged to their teacher Ishtiaq.

In the meantime, the teacher also came out of the school and misbehaved with the man who was making the video in his mobile phone.

The villagers brought the matter into the notice of Chief Executive Officer District Education Authority (DEA), Dr Ghulam Murtaza Anjum, who referred the case to District Officer (elementary education) Chaudhry Nasrullah Khan.

Mr Khan served a show-cause notice on the teacher and also summoned him twice for personal hearings.

In his order, the DO noted that inefficiency and misconduct by the teacher had been proved. The DO termed the action of the teacher “child labour and corporal punishment.”

The order concluded: “Major penalty, dismissal from service, is herby imposed upon Mohammad Ishtiaq Hussain.”

The chief executive officer of the newly-founded DEA told Dawn that such misconduct by any teacher would never be tolerated.

The sources said the teacher, who had been serving in the department for 40 years, was to retire after five months.

They said 200 children were studying in the school which had four teachers, including Mr Ishtiaq.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017