Punjab Study

LAHORE:THE recent posting of 123 female officers (BS-18) as Senior Headmistress/Deputy District Education Officer (Women) across the province has exposed alleged favouritism on part of officials of the Punjab School Education Department.

Sources in the department said while many candidates have been posted far away from their hometowns, a few have been favoured and posted in their hometowns or the district of their choice.

According to the posting orders, a candidate though having domicile of Faisalabad district has been posted at Lahore while dozens of other women officers have been posted outside their districts of domiciles.

Interestingly, the said candidate was posted at Government Girls Model High School Mughalpura, as senior headmistress though the post was not vacant at that time.

The sources further said the incumbent headmistress was due to retire on Feb 28, 2010 while orders regarding posting of the new headmistress were issued on Feb 12, 2010.

They further said the post was of BS-17 while the officer posted was of BS-18. “This all shows the candidate has been favoured”, commented another candidate who wished to remain anonymous.

The documentary evidence available with The News also shows a number of candidates who have domicile of Lahore were posted in other districts of the province.

“The posting of female officers far away from their hometowns is certainly unfair and demands immediate attention of the authorities concerned”, said an aggrieved candidate.

She further said if the department could ‘manage’ to post one officer in Lahore despite non-availability of post why others belonging to the same city were posted away from their hometowns.

The data also shows one of the candidates was posted as Deputy DEO H/Q office of the DEO (SE) Nankana Sahib against a post meant for male officers.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that one of the candidates on Tuesday submitted an application in office of the Chief Secretary Punjab against the officials of the department.

The candidate had mentioned her plight saying despite request for posting within Lahore keeping in view problems of her ailing husband; she was posted far-away (Nankana Sahib).

When contacted, Secretary Schools Muhammad Aslam Kamboh denied any favouritism saying merit was strictly observed in all the postings. He said candidates were posted as per their merit of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

Talking about posting of a female candidate as Deputy DEO H/Q office of the DEO (SE) Nankana Sahib, he said the post was not gender specific.

Aslam Kamboh said some candidates were exploiting the matter by saying everybody was interested to serve only at hometowns, adding whereas the recruitments had been made on province basis. The candidates were posted out of their hometowns only because posts were not available within their districts of domicile. The news