PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has issued notices to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and elementary and secondary education secretary seeking their response to a contempt petition against the posting of a teacher to a management position in violation of the judgments of superior courts.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued the order after preliminary hearing into the petition filed by an employee of the management cadre, Aurangzeb Khan, who was transferred from the post of deputy district education officer (DDEO) Swat to that of the sub-divisional education officer of Bahrain (Swat) and was replaced by an officer of teaching cadre, Fazle Khaliq.

The petitioner had requested the court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the KP chief secretary, secretary elementary and secondary education (E&SE) and director education for violating clear judgments of the superior courts.

Advocates Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel and Saifullah Muhib appeared for the petitioner and contended that in numerous cases, the high court had ordered the elementary and secondary education department not to ‘mix’ teaching and managing cadres and declared transfers illegal.

Petition challenges appointment of teacher to management position

They said their client was transferred to Swat on March 12, 2021, as the DDEO (male) in BPS-18 in his own pay scale.

The counsel added that another notification was issued on Sept 2, 2021, by the education department with the petitioner being transferred to Bahrain as the SDEO (male) and an employee of the teaching cadre, Fazle Khaliq, posted as his successor on ‘political basis’.

They said that Fazle Khaliq was earlier the principal of the Government Higher Secondary School in Shawar area of Swat district and belonged from the teaching cadre.

The counsel contended that the cadres were being ‘mixed’ by the high-ups of the education department to benefit the officials of the teaching cadre and post them to different positions of the management cadre due to the involvement of certain politicians.

They added that the provincial government issued a notification on Aug 24, 2021, declaring that the employees, who were posted to the wrong cadres, should report to their respective cadres otherwise they will automatically be re-posted to their own cadre.

The counsel, however, said that the notification had been violated to accommodate certain officers of the teaching cadre in the management cadre.

They added that an earlier notification issued on Feb 8, 2019, had clarified that a teacher belonging to the teaching cadre should remain in the sphere of teaching only and should not be given administrative posts.

The counsel argued that their client was illegally replaced by the officer of the teaching cadre and he had the right to be retained on the post of the DDEO instead of an officer of the teaching cadre.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2021