Go-ahead given for panel ontime-scale promotion of teachers

Islamabad: Finally, here comes something for hundreds of Islamabad’s government college teachers to cheer up: the Finance Division has given the go-ahead for their time-scale promotion.

Now, after getting the concurrence of the Finance Division’s Regulation Wing, the Capital Administration and Development Division, which oversees the government schools and colleges in the Islamabad Capital Territory through the Federal Directorate of Education, will form a new departmental promotion committee to examine over 1,000 time-scale promotion cases of the teachers pending approval for more than 10 months.

According to an insider, the DPC’s meetings were rescheduled three times for one reason or the other, mostly due to the unavailability of the senior CADD officials, and when the committee met in March this year, the Establishment Division representative, who was in attendance, refused to be its part insisting the very constitution of the committee didn't conform to the laid-down procedure.

Ironically, the Capital Administration and Development Division officials failed to prove that the committee's formation was right. The Establishment Division representative asked the CADD officials to secure the Finance Division’s concurrence for the formation of a new DPC and thus, further delaying the time-scale promotion of teachers.

The CADD later wrote a letter to the Finance Division seeking its concurrence on the matter. Now, the Finance Division has formally given the green light to the new committee. According to an office memorandum issued by it, the CADD can now constitute a three-member committee to award time-scale to the teachers from BPS-16 to BPS-17 and from BPS-17 to BPS-18.

The committee will have to be headed by the CADD additional secretary or senior joint secretary and comprised departmental financial advisor and FDE director general as members.

Another committee consisting of CADD additional secretary/senior joint secretary, and financial adviser and FDE director general will be formed to award time-scale to the BPS-18, BPS-19 and BPS-20 teachers of Islamabad’s government colleges.

Professor Khumar Gul of a government college welcomed the development. He told ‘The News’ that the teachers had been pushed from pillar to post to claim the due time-scale promotion.

“Having visited the Finance Division more than a dozen times, we (teachers) feel really relieved at the issuance of the sought-after concurrence letter to the CADD. We hope that the DPC will meet shortly to grant the long-awaited time-scale to the teachers of different cadres,” he said.

Former Federal Government College Teachers Association president Professor Tahir Mahmood also hailed the new DPC’s formation. “Many teachers retired fighting in vain for the time-scale right due to the red tape. However, our community is very happy now with the issuance of concurrence letter and requests the CADD additional secretary to call a meeting of the DPC without delay to their relief,” he said.