LAHORE, June 6: The project director of the provincial women political school established under an agreement between UNDP and the women development ministry has been removed reportedly because of her junior official rank and administrative problems.

The assignment has now been given to Social Welfare Department Director-General Haider Mehdi, who is a BS-20 officer, official sources said on Tuesday.

According to the agreement, the Pakistan government was to establish women political schools in each province and at the federal level to impart training to women councillors in the country in local laws, and their rights, duties and role in the new system. The other aim was to ultimately train women legislators in their role and rights in the assemblies.

The school in Punjab was established two years ago in the social welfare department with Ms Farah Salim, a BS-17 officer of the same department, as its project director.

The sources said she had been removed because of a provision of the agreement according to which a senior officer in BS-19 or 20 could be appointed project director in all the provinces. The post of the project director at the federal level was for an officer in BS-21.

The requirement was met in all the other provinces and at the national level but not in Punjab. And since the outgoing officer was in BS-17, she could no longer hold the post, they said, alleging that functional problems also led to her removal. When asked as to how the authorities concerned overlooked the requirement of the agreement while appointing a junior officer on the senior level post, the officials alleged that the officer might have used her contacts to grab it.

On the contrary, it was learnt that the lady officer was selected against the post because of her experience in handling such work. There was no requirement of posting a BS-19 or 20 officer as the project director at the time of her appointment and the same provision was inserted in the agreement afterwards, it was claimed.