DLP Report
PESHAWAR
A sub-committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly standing committee on Elementary and Secondary Education has directed the education department to move a legal amendment to resolve the long-standing seniority issue of thousands of teachers.
The meeting of the sub-committee was held at the Provincial Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday with committee chairman Abdul Salam Afridi in the chair.
MPAs Adnan Khan, Sobia Shahid and Shazia Jadoon, deputy secretary and director of elementary and secondary education, officials of the law department, Advocate General’s office, president of the All Teachers Association and officials of the assembly secretariat attended the meeting.
The committee reviewed implementation of its earlier directives and took up the seniority dispute of teachers belonging to various cadres who were recruited through the National Testing Service (NTS) in 2014, 2015 and 2018 and regularised in 2018.
The ATA president told the committee that some junior teachers had been given preference in seniority and promoted, while those recruited earlier were overlooked. He demanded that seniority be fixed from the date of initial appointment.
Chairman Afridi directed the education department to examine whether any case regarding the matter was pending before a court and, if there was no legal impediment, to prepare an amendment to the relevant Act for a permanent solution.
On the occasion, the director of elementary and secondary education proposed that if seniority was to be granted from 2014 through an amendment, the law should clearly stipulate that the beneficiaries would not be entitled to retrospective financial benefits and that promotions already made would remain unaffected.
The proposal was agreed to by the committee members and the ATA president.
Mr Afridi directed the department to prepare a draft amendment in consultation with the law department, the Advocate General’s office and other stakeholders to avoid future legal complications and to present it in the next meeting of the committee for onward submission to the provincial assembly.
