LAHORE: The Punjab school education department on Wednesday completely stopped the process of transfer and posting of schoolteachers in the province in view of the upcoming general elections.

The department also had withdrawn the transfer and posting orders issued after May 12, a senior official told Dawn seeking anonymity.

He said earlier the process of schoolteachers’ transfer and posting was halted in the province on the direction of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) because of undergoing training programmes and preparations for the upcoming general elections. However, he said, the process was started again and the lists had also been issued after the completion of the ECP training schedule.

He said later all the orders of transfer and posting issued after May 12 were withdrawn and it was left to the next government to decide whether to continue or to stop the process.

Orders issued after May 12 withdrawn

He said the schoolteachers, whose applications were under process, would have to wait for their transfer and posting till the next provincial government takes charge.

The department had also barred all the chief executive officers (CEOs) of district education authorities (DEAs) from issuing any transfer orders.

The CEOs were directed to complete the process of scrutiny of [transfer] applications before issuance of transfer orders.

The department had also postponed its School Leadership Development Programme (SLDP) under the Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Educational Development (QAED) because of the election-related training of teachers in Punjab. The training schedule was overlapping with the ECP orientation sessions for assistant presiding officers and polling officers from April 23 to May 12.

A notification was issued in this regard stating that the training schedule issued by the SED for SLDP was hereby withdrawn and the new schedule would be communicated subsequently.

As many as 50,000 teachers will have to wait for their transfer and posting till formation of the next government after the general elections.

A schoolteacher, Nasreen Mahmood, said she was serving as EST at Mianwali and was divorced by her husband. “I have to relocate to reside with my parents in Faisalabad and had applied for transfer under the transfer policy 2013,” she said.

She said that she was transferred to Faisalabad in August last but the department had not adjusted her there. “I have visited every office of the department, including that of the minister and the secretary of school education department but no one was ready to solve my problem,” she said.

She said that she could not continue her job at Mianwali because her ex-husband wanted to snatch her children and was also hurling life threats.

Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) secretary general Rana Liaqat Ali said the department had announced a criteria for transfer but it was violated because of political pressures.

He said under the criteria the applicants completing three-year employment, giving good results of students and posted far away from their native places were preferred for transfer. Mr Liaqat said thousands of teachers, especially women, were facing problems because of the blanket ban slapped on transfers.

He pointed out that under the ban the entitlement of married women teachers to have posting on desired station under the wedlock policy was also being ignored. He added the female teachers who got married during the ban would have to wait further for their transfer.

He said there were around 7,000 teachers who had applied for the inter-district transfers but only 200 to 300 of them were transferred, that too on political recommendation.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018