Teacher sacked
ChitralToday that the EDO education had sacked Mr Khan on the basis of an inquiry which he (Mr Shahzad) headed. The inquiry was conducted against the teacher for continuously violating the service rules. He said the sacked teacher had the right to file an appeal with the director education and other higher authorities against his termination. The DDO said it was the first case of its kind that a teacher had been sacked for working with an NGO. It may be noted that upon the complaints of the community of Garam Chashma, two inquiries were also held in the past against government teachers affiliated with funded NGOs. As a result, many teachers tendered resignation from the Garam Chashma Area Development Organization (GADO), a funded NGO, in compliance of the department rules and regulations. However, Mr Amir Wali did not leave GADO as its chairman despite the initiation of disciplinary action against him. He was transferred to the GMS Mogh. The latest inquiry was the result of the community complaints against the government servants for continuously violating the civil servant rules.]]>
The law/rule is very simple. A government servant cannot hold an office of profit in any other organisation while he is in the service of Government of Pakistan. This simply means that a Govt. employee cannot draw salary from any other organisation. Voluntary work is never discouraged and no rule applies on voluntary work.
In this particular case if the teacher was drawing salary from the NGO, and the inquiry committee might have found evidence to that affect, it is a violation and his sacking shall be appreciated. I read some comments here that why he was singled out and why others who are also working for NGO’s are not sacked. This is a sorry argument, you should appreciate this sacking and report others to Education Department, Ehtisab Commission of KPK, or CM Complaints cell. It is responsibility of every citizen to report every misdeed to the higher authorities.
What the department has done is a corrective measure against a person who does not comply with its rules /regulations and instead creating anarchy. First of all, we must, as civilized citizens of the state learn respecting rule of law. The above mentioned comments are encouraging people to be more interested with the prohibited activities rather than interested and committed with their prescribed responsibilities. The interesting question is that previously two enquiries had been conducted against the said sacked teachers, other teachers resigned from the NGOs but he did not, why? It seems that he has more interests in the NGO than his job. Morally he had to submit his resignation or challenge it in the court of law. When a person gets job he gives undertaking to strictly comply with the rules of that department. Anyone who violates department’s policy pushing others to the societies where is rule of jungle .If the teacher is so committed to voluntary work he should arrange tuition classes to the students and establish coaching and debate forum .This is called voluntary activism. Affiliating with an NGO with millions of developmental fund is not called voluntarism and some people are creating misunderstanding in this connexion by merely showing their hollow sympathy with the affectee.As citizen of a civilized state we must learn to understand our rights and obligations, as we are not living in Stone Age. The Civil Servant Act 1973 strictly prohibits government servants to affiliate with funded NGOs and conduct side business without the prior permission of the head of the department. Instead of initiating leg pulling we must cooperate to the implementation of rule of law. It is also the responsibilities of the communities as citizen of Pakistan to submit complaints against those employees who are violating rules/regulations rather than confusing people about government policy.
First of all I would like to thank the education department for taking a right decision. Previously these sacred cows used political muscles to pressurize department, as we have seen in the past. Such timely and strict decisions will convey for other teachers who are engaged with this job only for entertainment and income generation.
My second question is about the comment by Nisar Ahmad Shah, who has presented KPK Servant Rules section. OK fine. He should differentiate between charitable and other religious or social institutions. GADO is a funded NGO and not a religious or religious institute. Such teachers are enjoying these funded NGOs since 1980s groomed by AKRSP. It is such a lucrative side business that some government servants are doing at the cost of their jobs. Your paragraph itself indicates that such affiliation should be with the prior permission of the head of the department. Secondly, numerous complaints by the community do not qualify such affiliation. The Quaid has made them not masters but servant of the people of Pakistan. Therefore, government servant must serve the people within their departments for which they are getting handsome salaries and not vice versa. Kindly read the Govt.Civil Servant Rule 1973 and Govt.Servant Conduct Rule 1987.
Lastly he has not been singled out, he has been terminated because of his continuous mockery and challenging the rule of law, which any violator deserves. As citizen of Pakistan we must respect both the rights and obligations, interrelated and interdependent. If you have any reservation about a government employee, submit your complaints with the concerned department and definitely inquiry will be conducted.
Brother, I really appreciate you and the like-minded for your concern about the rule of law. There is no second thought that violators of law should be punished as per the rules. Moreover, let me assure you the Civil Servants Rule I quoted here, is not to defend the violators but to highlight the provision of law which allows teachers/Civil Servants to contribute to the community. That should be voluntary, indeed. And believe me, I do understand the very difference between a funded NGO and the social/religious/charity organization. However, the delicate point which I wanted to emphasize is that, we should carefully implement this particular section of law to curb the exploiters /violators while not hurting those who are contributing to the community without compromising their basic job.
Having said all that, there is no fault in saying justice should be across the board and not selective. Otherwise the haphazard implementation of law would promote anything but the rule of law. Period.
The involvement of Govt. servants (teachers, in this case) in social/NGO activities is highly debatable. Considering the huge impact of the case on society, both positive and negative, I hold on my opinion until the dust settles and further details get surfaced. In the meantime let’s go through the very rule: The NWFP Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1987.
The NWFP Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1987, Rule No 16:
Private trade, employment or work:-
(1) No Government servant shall, except with the previous sanction of the Government, engage in any trade or undertake any employment or work, other than his official duties:
Provided that he may, without such sanction, undertake honorary work of a religious, social or charitable nature or occasional work of a literary or artistic character, subject to the condition that his official duties do not thereby suffer and that the occupation or undertaking does not conflict or is not inconsistent with his position or obligations as a Government servant but he shall not undertake or shall discontinue such work if so directed by Government. A Government servant who has any doubt about the propriety of undertaking any particular work should refer the matter for the orders of Government:
Provided further that non-gazetted Government servant may, without such sanction, undertake a small enterprise which absorbs family labour and where he does so shall file details of the enterprise alongwith the declaration of assets.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule(1), no Government servant shall associate himself with any private trust, foundation or similar other institution which is not sponsored by Government.
(3) This rule does not apply to sports activities and memberships of recreation clubs.
Source: http://khyberpakhtunkhwa.gov.pk/khyberpk/admin421/upload/downloads/estacode.pdf
Law is said to be blind, and that should be rightly so. However, after having a bird’s eye view of the 324 pages ESTA CODE (KPK), I felt sorry for the poor teacher. In fact, he is neither the first nor the last of the Govt. servants having violated the Govt. rules. Had there been a strict rule of law in its true meaning, hundreds of the Govt. servant (read black sheep), from all fraternities should have already been behind the bars.
Then there is Plato, who said thousand years ago: Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws!
Nisar Ahmad Shah
Garam Chashma
There is no question of extra efficiency and going an extra mile to serve the community while absenting from the actual job which in this case was teaching the students of the community. When you work for a department or an organization you have to follow certain rules. Can an army man after completing his duty go and work for the police or any NGO and claim that he is doing it for the welfare of the community. No. The teacher was drawing salary form the govt and his job was to teach the children of the people. If there are other teachers or any other public servants like doctors etc who are doing job with private organizations that are also wrong and must be reined in. But the govt cannot initiate any action unless the community complain against such public servants.
Any one who helps the community without compromising with her/his his core responsibilities must be encouraged. If we don’t recognize them we will be in stone age again. We must realize that the change which is visible in our district is because of these people who spared their precious time and worked with NGOs for development of the society. We are proud that Chitral is known a developed district in-spite of the fact of it is remoteness. So if we fail to help the government as well the community by sparing few hours, it mean we are living for ourselves not for other. We should not live a selfish life and the people who speaks against these worker are having their own interest or personal graveness with them nothing more.
What about Miss Noshaba who heads an NGO?
This is first time in the history of Chitral where such immoral action has been taken based on fake reporting. The community of Chitral is well aware about the government contribution in development of the area, including the role of political project leaders. If some people who sacrify their time voluntarily for betterment of the community and works as a social mobilizer with government or NGO’s to uplift the area, should be encouraged instead penalized them.
It is surprising that number of government staff working for political parties but no action is taken against them. Numbers of Government employees are associated with other business directly or indirectly and getting financial benefits but no one speaks against them.
A huge number of Doctors running their private clinics or associated with other hospitals, number of academics staff working as tutor or running their own academies throughout the country, how many of them have been penalized.
In this particular case a person working with an NGO purely on voluntarily basis without compromising his job as a teacher. The department must understand the facts that the people who are working as community worker are the key people who contribute for the society. If we people will not play our role in the society and keep ourselves restrict with our job than who will work to bring positive change in the society. Today Government urges the community to come forward and work voluntarily to eradicate terrorism from the country. In this case we don’t know what the government wants? Simply the departments must think positively instead creating issue for the community.
We are very pleased to hear that Govt has taken very good step against the negligence of a teacher who was involved in the NGO for last many years. Being a Govt teacher no one is allowed to involve in the NGO sector. Specially in Chitral this practice was started in 1982 with the launching of AKRSP. Owing to lack of education in the district at that time their services were required in the NGO sector. Now they should give up voluntarily such a type of activity. Every body knows that there is a lot of money in the NGO for embezzlement, that’s why they are not leaving the NGO. We should indicate such individuals who are involved in the NGO activity. We further expect that a strict action would be taken against them in future as well.
This seems strange to single out a teacher and removing him from his service by single stroke of a pen on clumsy grounds. Doing community service in spare time is not a crime and is general practice in any progressive society. We desperately need social activists at community level in Chitral, so that we are able to foster effective development partnership with outside world. So far, Government role in development of Chitral has been almost negligible and most of the work has been routed through various aid agencies and built up upon the tireless efforts of these development activists.
Lastly, the details of the negligence committed by this worthy teacher (if any) may be shared with all and sundry so that they could keep an eye on the teachers of their respective areas.
Thanks.
The inquiry shows that some particular people are being penalized. It is necessary that the investigators should expand the scope of the inquiry. There are still some holy cows who are drawing salaries by sitting home and majority of them are females teachers. A good number of these female teachers are submitting fake medical certificates using the good offices of their spouses, declaring their otherwise healthy wives seriously sick. The monitoring and evaluation department should also check the record of these teachers that how many of them had availed sick leave by submitting fake medical certificates.