KARACHI, June 10: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association has criticized the recent exercise of transfers and postings of college teachers, who had been promoted to higher grades during the last one month.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, leaders of the college teachers’ body said that a large number of promoted teachers had been transferred from one college to another unnecessarily and unlawfully.

Teachers should have been promoted and upgraded to posts available at their respective colleges, they said, adding that there was no need to transfer them on the basis of recruitment rules.

The SPLA president, Prof Manzoor Hussain Chisti, along with Prof Riaz Ahsan and Prof Iftikhar M Azmi, addressed the press conference and apprised journalists about alleged irregularities in the process of promotions, and transfers and postings of teachers.

He said that as many as 107 teachers posted in Karachi were promoted to the next grades. Some 87 of these were removed from their existing places of postings.

In the case of men and woman, about 82 and 81 per cent respectively were disturbed in Karachi, while the respective number of transfers and postings in the Hyderabad and Sukkur regions ranged from 33 to 45 per cent, he added.

The leaders pointed out that some glaring mistakes had also been made purposefully in the promotion, and transfers and postings’ lists.

One lady teacher, who was posted in Karachi, had been shown in the notification to be posted at a Sukkur college and consequently on promotion had also been transferred to Sukkur. Similarly, a teacher from Khairpur was shown posted at a college in Korangi and transferred to the Jamia Millia College.

They mentioned that there was no rationale behind the transfer and postings in question and it appeared that teachers hailing from Karachi had been victimized under certain motives, which had even disturbed the existing performance of some colleges.

“The government has never ordered transfers and postings of such nature in the past,” they added.

Prof Chisti said the SPLA had informed the Sindh governor, chief minister, and chief secretary about the problems and ‘organized’ biases towards college teachers. The purpose of transfers and postings of such nature was nothing but to create opportunities for those who wanted to exploit the situation and have unlawful gains, he claimed.

The SPLA demanded that the government immediately withdraw orders of transfers and postings of teachers promoted from the posts of lecturers to assistant professors, and ensure transparency in the process to avert any discrimination.

Mr Chisti also referred to his talks with the chief secretary on the issue of ‘controversial’ notifications, which had been sources of concern and unrest among teachers of the province.

He said that following a representation by the SPLA, the chief secretary had ordered to hold in abeyance the implementation of the May 31 and June 2 notifications regarding postings of assistant professors, being promoted to the grades of associate professors, till further orders.

In the meantime, a high-powered committee of the SPLA held a meeting on June 9 and vowed to fight against those involved in distorting facts or irregularities.

The body also set a deadline of June 15 for the government for cancelling the disputed transfers, after which they (SPLA) would decide their future strategy.