LAHORE – Despite the lapse of sufficient time of three months by the Lahore High Court, the Punjab government has failed to comply with the court oreders for resolution to the educators’ issue, TheNation has learnt. 
Not complying with the LHC orders to resolve the school teachers’ problems, the committee constituted by the Punjab chief secretary could not hold even a single meeting with other stakeholders in this regard as the time period expired on Tuesday.
The documents available with this scribe disclose that the Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa on the orders passed by the LHC on June 4 2012 in writ petition No 26930/2010, constituted a committee comprising law secretary as convener and School Education secretary, secretary (Regulations) S&GAD and secretary Finance as members. The convener of the committee had fixed August 31 for personal hearing to make a decision in the matter, they said. Letters in this regard were issued to all the 62 petitioners and the committee members to attend the meeting.
A petitioner requesting anonymity said that prior to the fixed date, all the petitioners were informed that the meeting was postponed owing to the unavailability of a committee member, the Secretary Schools, who they said, was on a foreign trip. The next date of meeting is September 15, he informed and added that the next date of hearing in the LHC was September 7.
Secretary Schools Education Aslam Kambo was not available for comments.
The spokesperson of the petitioners said, “Though all the political parties emphasized the need for a uniform education system and the implementation of Article 25-A of the Constitution that calls for the provision of basic education to all the children but authorities concerned even forgot to even discuss the problems of the teachers.”
How the government could bring reforms in the education sector without annulling the existing discriminatory policies initiated by the higher authorities, he suspected. The bureaucracy, the politicians and the civil society are mainly responsible for sorry state of affairs in education sector, he said.
Educator Mohammad Akram said that the government’s motion to ignore those recruited in the former dictator’s regime was biased. He alleged that the old teachers’ union was also creating hurdles in their way as all of the newly recruited educators’ lot was highly qualified and they had a fear of their rapid promotion. The educators were regularised after a period of seven years of service and this action affected their seniority, he added.
Another teacher said that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s focus on Danish School at the cost of existing infrastructure should be reconsidered. The government should resolve the educators’ problems to materialise its dream to bring educational revolution in the province, he proposed.