PTI, ANP differ on ‘illegally’ appointed teachers

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Workers Welfare Board Schools’ (WWBS) teachers allegedly got jobs illegally on the basis of strong political connections during the ANP government in the province and now want their reinstatement by pressuring the PTI leadership through prolonged protests, knowledgeable sources said.
The ANP in its official statement avoided commenting on legality or illegality of these appointments and simply confined its response to condemning the PTI government which according it was wrongly treating poor teachers.
The sources said the PPP government had allegedly given thousands of jobs allegedly to well-connected people illegally, including thousands of well-paid or top jobs, without following any criteria. In majority of cases, initially people were hired on contract or on daily-wages basis and later they were made permanent or given job on the basis of their ‘relevant experience’ or were regularised using one Khursheed Shah Committee.
Same was the situation in Sindh, Balochistan and KP from 2008 to 2013. The ANP government, the sources said, broke all past records of KP history. This practice has deprived countless poor but intelligent and competent Pakistanis youngsters of their right. Such practices have forced the youth to live a life of disappointment or indulge in terrorist activities.
Both the PML-N and PTI had promised to give justice to dejected and disappointed youth by removing all illegally appointed officers and employees and by making appointments strictly on merit. The PTI government has taken an initiative in the KP and has fired such illegally employed employees and announced to make future appointments on merit.
The PTI government, the sources said, has come under pressure and has agreed to regularise these protesting teachers after taking their test. According to sources there must be a new procedure of recruitment where fresh candidates should be allowed to compete against announced and advertised seats and these protesting people be also allowed to become part of that process after they agree to give an undertaking that they will never do anything illegal in future.
The only valid point raised by protesting teachers is that when thousands of people were appointed illegally in many provincial government departments, why only they (KPK WWB teachers) were being fired. Why ‘justice’ is selective and not being done to all?
At the federal level, hundreds of thousands of youths who were not given their rights during the previous regime are anxiously waiting that the PML-N government will fulfill its promise.
Salim Qalandar, a representative of WWB teachers, while talking to The News said that the allegations leveled by PTI chief Imran Khan were incorrect and in fact he and all his colleagues were appointed through a proper procedure.
He said the PTI chief’s allegation that the provincial minister of ANP for labour was facing a NAB case for illegal recruitments was also baseless and wrong.
Spokesman for the Prime Minister Mussadiq Malik while responding to The News question as to why Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif failed to fulfill his promise of reversing all illegal appointments made during previous regime and then making new appointments strictly on merit through a centralized high-powered commission, said an initial effort by the government on this count was opposed by the courts.
Mussadiq was of the view that all appointments during PML-N tenure were made on merit. He said that he will look into the issue in detail.
ANP spokesman Zahid Khan while talking to The News said, “If the PTI says those recruited during the ANP tenure were not appointed on merit, after end of term of PTI government, we will also say that those appointed by PTI were illegally recruited.”
Zahid Khan said Imran Khan was humiliating Pakhtoons. He said Chaudhry Nisar and Islamabad Police who were unable to act against Imran Khan’s illegal sit-in had tortured these poor teachers on Friday during their protest.
“We only want justice for the poor while the PTI government is making them jobless,” Zahid Khan added.