SAHIWAL: The District Accounts Office has not paid salary to 36 educators of Chichawatni tehsil for six months. The educators claimed they were working since February, but had not been paid a single penny yet.

District Accounts Officer Mohammad Muzammil Ghori said the educators’ degrees were being verified currently, while the educators claimed that they had fulfilled all requirements for the release of salary.

Deputy District Education Officer (DDEO) Zaheer Joya told Dawn that no salary had been issued to 36 educators. “My office has completed all necessary official requirements for salary release,” he added.

The educators were inducted as elementary school educators and senior elementary school educators in Chichawatni tehsil by the local District Education Authority in December 2017 and their induction process was completed in February 2018. They were then posted in different rural primary and secondary schools.

A source told Dawn that issuance of service book, degree verification and latest computerised salary form were required by the accounts office for release of salary. All these requirements had been fulfilled by the educators since April.

On June 9, DDEO Joya wrote a letter requesting the accounts officer to release the salaries. He confirmed to Dawn that all educators were working regularly at their places of posting and the department was satisfied with their performance. There was no reason why the salaries should not be released.

Abid Shujah Malhi, president of the teachers union in the tehsil, told Dawn that a delegation of teachers had met with the officials concerned of the accounts office in Sahiwal but there was no progress.

Representative of the teachers association, including Shafiq Jutt, Rizwanul Haq and Shaukat Kathiya, blamed the accounts office for the “unnecessary delay”. Many of the educators had even presented their individual cases through their headmasters, but to no avail.

One of the suffering educators, while talking to Dawn, said if there was any lacuna in their documents, the accounts office should immediately inform them otherwise there was no reason for depriving them of salaries for six months.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2018