Anomaly in promotions of college clerks

Islamabad : Lower division clerks (LDCs) at different Islamabad model colleges have resented out-of-turn promotions of some of their colleagues and declared the Federal Directorate of Education's move as unfair and discriminatory.

According to officials, the FDE issued orders to promote eight LDCs (BPS-9) on January 25, 2023, as upper division clerks (BPS-11). Of them, three got out-of-turn promotion. Abdul Jabbar Khan, who was at serial no 2 in the seniority list, did not get promotion. His name was dropped from the list of promotees. However, Syed Waseem Abbas, who was at no. 14, in the seniority list, was promoted.

Similarly, the seniority number of Muhammad Attique was at no. 4, but Syed Asif Hussain (no. 17) got promotion. Also, Sabra Sultana, whose at seventh place in the seniority list, was denied promotion. In her place, Waseem Sajjad at serial no. 27 of the list was promoted.

A college LDC told 'The News' that the FDE decided about who and when to promote at will until court orders or street protests restricted its 'pick and choose' promotion policy. "We don't expect the FDE of a fair play, so litigation is under consideration," he said.

The LDCs claimed that in order to promote blue eyed boys, seniority principle was badly ignored. "When we asked officials at the FDE why our names were dropped? We were told that we had not completed a 3-week basic IT training course. This is ridiculous because we were neither informed nor nominated for the course by the FDE," an LDC said.

He said such moves undermined the morale of employees. The clerk said in a separate case of promotion of UDCs, such condition of training was waved as some UDCs got promotion without getting training, while in an act of sheer discrimination, those deserving promotion were denied that right to secure next grade. The LDCs demand of the education secretary to step in for action on the matter to their relief.