ISLAMABAD: In order to resolve the issue of daily-wage teachers, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has decided to get approval from the federal government for creation of new posts.

An official of the FDE told Dawn that through a summary the directorate would write to the finance ministry and the establishment division for the creation of new posts in the FDE-run educational institutions.

About 2,000 daily-wage employees, most of them teachers, have been staging protest demonstrations for regularisation of their services and getting pending salaries. The daily-wage teaching and non-teaching staff have not been paid since July 2017.

“Yes, we have decided to get approval for the creation of new posts to accommodate the daily wage staff who have orders for appointment issued by CADD and a regularisation committee,” said Hasnat Qureshi, the director general of the FDE.

He said employees who were appointed after adopting a procedure would be regularised. “As per our rough calculation, there are 800 daily-wage employees who have CADD or regularisation committee’s orders. We will consider them after getting approval for the creation of new posts,” he said, adding at a later stage the cases of others staff would also be examined.

A few months ago, the Islamabad High Court had declared the appointment of daily-wage teachers illegal. However, an official of the FDE said while regularising the daily-wage employees against new posts the IHC verdict would be kept in view.

CADD minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry a few days ago informed the Senate that the issue of daily-wage teachers would be resolved soon.

In response to a question, he said it was his top priorities to regularise the services of daily-wage and contractual teaching and non-teaching staff.

The FDE chief said a file had been moved to the finance ministry for getting funds to pay salaries to all the daily-wage employees. “As soon as we get the funds, we will pay all the pending salaries,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018