Woman education officer warns of legal battle to keep post

ISLAMABAD, May 30: The district education officer (DEO) Zhorah Jalal, who has been made officer on special duty (OSD), on Friday said she would approach the Peshawar High Court (PHC) without any further delay if she was replaced with any other woman. Talking to ChitralToday on phone, she made it clear that there was not a single qualified woman for the slot except her, adding a group of political favourits aspiring for the post through backdoor channels should be ready to face her in the court of law. “I challenge all those politically-backed rankers who want to snatch the DEO (female) position to come to the court now as I will not accept such a departure because I’m the senior most officer who qualified the public service commission for the slot of headmistress, a BPS 17 position, in 1997,” she added. She claimed that there was not a single woman officer except her in the district from 1997 to 2004 who qualified for BPS-17 through the public service commission. However, she did add that there were some subject specialists who she claimed were unqualified for a managerial slot. Ms Zohra also declared that there was not a single lady officer in the district who deserved to be her replacement as DEO (female), adding there should be test/interview in presence of top educationists if somebody thinks she could compete with her. “If a woman who has a masters’ degree in theology thinks she could be my replacement she must be ready to face me because I know all those who want to occupy the slot could not even write a single sentence in English what to talk of managing thousands of schools in the district”, she maintained.  ]]>