PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the elementary and secondary education department to produce a report about management cadre posts and the teaching cadre officials serving on them.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal directed deputy secretary of the department Naveedullah Shah to submit the report by Sept 18 and adjourned the hearing into the matter.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Najmul Hassan of the education department’s management cadre against his removal as the sub-divisional officer (SDO) Dera Ismail Khan and appointment of his successor from the teaching cadre.

The petitioner insisted that teachers couldn’t be appointed to the management cadre positions.

The bench ordered the clubbing of the petition with a main petition recently filed by 24 management cadre officers against the “illegal” appointment of teaching cadre officers to the positions meant for them.

Hears petition against such postings

Jaffar Mansoor and 23 other petitioners requested the court to stop the government from assigning management cadre positions to the teachers.

On Aug 7, a high court bench issued a stay order on that petition, directing the elementary and secondary education department not to give management roles to more teaching staff members.

During the hearing, Justice Ijaz Anwar observed that apparently, the education department couldn’t sustain political pressure due to which they posted officials of the teaching cadre, serving in lower grades, against posts of management cadres in higher grades.

The bench observed that the practice was adopted without any legal backing.

Advocate Khalid Mahmood appeared for the petitioner and contended that the government’s act was a violation of the National Education Policy and superior courts judgments.

It asked the deputy secretary under which law, the official of the management cadre was made an officer on special duty and was replaced with that of a teaching cadre official.

Deputy secretary Naveedullah Shah said that presently, there were around 44 vacant posts of grade 17, 27 of grade 18 and several posts of BPS-19 for which they didn’t have suitable officials as there were a few management cadre officials.

He said that sometimes, the department had to appoint teachers to those positions as officials of the management cadre were reluctant to be posted to certain sensitive areas, including Waziristan and Kurram.

Justice Ijaz Anwar observed that if officials were reluctant to perform duty, action should be taken against them.

The secretary claimed that after a stay order was issued by the court, the department had not posted any teacher against a post of management cadre.

He added that the petitioner was also transferred prior to that order of the court.

The bench observed that there was no logic behind the replacement of a BPS-17 management cadre official with a teaching cadre official of BPS-16.

Advocate Khalid Rehman, who is the counsel for petitioners in the earlier petition, informed the bench that the main petition was fixed for hearing on Sept 18 and it would be appropriate to club that petition with it.

He said in that petition, he had provided complete data of the number of seats of the management cadre and the number of teachers appointed to those positions.

The lawyer said that for the purpose of adjustment of teaching cadre officers to the management cadre posts in May 2024, 24 officers of that cadre were placed at the disposal of the directorate of elementary and secondary education in violation of the law and superior court judgements.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2024