Education dept employees reinstated by court remain jobless
PESHAWAR:January 22: Several Education Department employees, reinstated by the Peshawar High Court (PHC), remain jobless as the PTI-led provincial government has not implemented the court judgment passed four months ago.
The high court had given one month time to all district education officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for compliance with the judgment to reinstate the sacked teachers.
“We are not being re-instated on the jobs even though we won legal battle in the court,” said Shah Hussain, one of the reinstated employees.
Another employee, Abdul Shafi, said that they first became victim of political rivalry as they were appointed by one political government and terminated by another.
He said that after 20 long years they got a chance and were reinstated by the court, but now the government is using delaying tactics in reinstating them.
About nine sacked teachers, including Shah Hussain and Abdul Shafi, who were sacked during 1993-1996 had filed the writ petition in the high court to seek reinstatement as per the Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Act 2012.
The judgment was passed by a division bench headed by Justice Roohul Amin Khan.
The petitioners said they were appointed as teachers against vacant posts in Education department from 1993 ro 1996, but were shocked to know that they had been dismissed from service due to the change of government. The petitioners recalled that they agitated the issue at different platforms, but to no avail.
In its reply, the government stated that the employees were terminated from service on the ground of irregular appointments.
It said some of the petitioners lacked the prescribed academic qualification and criteria laid down in the Sacked Employees Act of 2012, and some being untrained couldn’t benefit from the said act.
“Having heard the arguments of learned counsel for the parties, it appears from the records of the controversy of reinstatement of sacked employees that the high court had allowed appeals of the sacked employees and that were also maintained by the Supreme Court,” the judgment stated.
The high court stated: “The petitioners have been appointed during the period 1993 to 1996, and fall within the meaning of section 2 (g) of the Act of 2012. Section 3 of the Act (ibid), provides mechanism for the appointment of the sacked employees, according to which on commencement of the Act, all sacked employees subject to section 7, may be appointed in their respective cadre of their concerned departments, in which they occupied civil posts before their dismissal, removal and termination from service.”
The court declared that the case of the present petitioners is not on different footing from the other sacked employees who have already been granted the relief of reinstatement in their service in light of decision of the Service Tribunal as well as the judgment of high court and the Supreme Court (supra).
The high court ruled that the principal seat of the high court and other circuit benches have allowed writ petitions in which the petitioners, though eligible for appointment but not equipped with training certificate, shall be considered for reinstatement against their respective posts under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sacked Employees (Appointment ) Act, 2012 immediately.The news.
