SAHIWAL: A majority of teachers inducted in grades 9, 14 and 16 in August 2017 have yet to get their salaries from the District Accounts Office, though they have been regularly performing their duties in both urban and rural areas of Sahiwal for the last seven months.

They have been facing difficulties as the local education department has failed to get their degrees verified from the boards, universities and other degree-awarding institutions.

In 2016, the education department announced around 1,600 posts of educators in Sahiwal in four categories -- elementary school educators (ESE, Grade 9), senior elementary school educators (SESE, Grade 14), secondary school educators (SSE, Grade 16) and assistant education officers (AEO, Grade 16). After one year or so the selection process was completed and finally candidates were asked to join available posts in August.

The chief executive officer, education, later informed them that all the candidates must have their degrees verified from their respective institutions under the provincial rules.

Malik Shafiq, assistant director, CEO Office, said no salary slip could be issued to any teacher until the department confirms validity of their degrees.

Ms Samiya Anwar and DEO Rashid Latif told Dawn that the degree-verification cases of all these academics had been sent to respective boards in August 2017.

Some teachers this correspondent spoke to, claimed that they had been deprived of their salaries for the last many months despite being regular and conscientiously doing their jobs. They demanded that the higher authorities expedite the process of verification of degrees.

MANHANDLING: An assistant superintendent prison was critically injured by his two subordinates for reporting absence of one of them to the higher-ups in the Central Prison on Tuesday night. The Civil Lines police registered a case against the two warders on the complaint of the AS.

AS Qaiser Farooq checked the duty rostrum and found Asad Shah absent from his duty on Monday. Mr Farooq reported the official’s absence to the jail superintendent and the DIG Prison, Sahiwal Range, on Tuesday.

Asad, along with his colleague Nawaz, attacked Qaiser near Parade Ground on the jail premises and injured him with pistol butts.

The DIG appointed Naveed Ashraf to hold an internal inquiry into the matter.

ARREST: An Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) team arrested on Wednesday a police inspector on the allegation of taking Rs40,000 bribe from a man implicated in a drug case by the Ghala Mandi police.

Inspector Shahid Nazir, the drug cell in-charge, allegedly demanded ​Rs200,000 for absolving Muhammad Yousaf, a resident of Pir Bokhari Road, Ghala Mandi, of peddling. They, however, negotiated and agreed on a payment of ​Rs40,000​.

A raiding team claimed that they caught the policeman taking money after Yousaf’s elder brother Shahbaz Ali reported the matter to the ACE.

Judicial Magistrate Chaudhry Usman and ACE Assistant Director Rafiq Sindhu recovered the amount on Wednesday and had the suspect arrested.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018