Islamabad: Some 650 lecturers recommended by the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) are waiting for their posting orders since March while some 527 Information Technology (IT) teachers in the Punjab are also waiting for extension in contract.

The 650 lecturers, recommended by the SPSC in March 2008, are still waiting for their posting orders from the Sindh Education Department. The SPSC advertised 741 posts of lecturers, for various subjects, in June 2005 and tests were held in January, 2006. Interviews for 91 posts were held and results of them were announced in due course of time. The rest of the candidates were interviewed in February-March and final results of the interviews were announced by the SPSC in March.

The remaining 650 lecturers were given offer orders in May and they submitted the necessary documents, including medical fitness and police verification certificates, from their respective districts to the Education Department. “The schedule of the posting orders was published in newspapers but was subsequently postponed for reasons best known to the concerned authorities,” said one of the successful candidates.

Meanwhile, the secretary Education, Sindh, while talking to The News, said that the department had moved a summary to the chief minister for the posting of these lecturers but some of them went to the Sindh High Court for early posting while the summary was in process. He said now the High Court had sought the official status of these postings and asked the Education Department to submit its answer and the department was preparing its answer for the court. He said that the matter was in court and would be settled after the court’s decision.

Whereas the successful candidates said that they went to the court after the delay in the posting orders. Also, some 527 IT teachers in the Punjab are looking towards the Chief Minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, to get their contracts extended. They were hired to enhance computer literacy among the youth in schools across the province in 2005. Their contract expired last month.

The spokesman for the Punjab government, Pervaiz Rasheed, said that the process for the extension of the contracts was under way. He said a summary had been moved to the Finance Division that would be moved to the Chief Minister’s office for approval in a few days. He said that it was decided at the time of their induction that that the services of these IT teachers would be given to the district government but now it has been decided to retain them with the provincial government. “So the process may take some time,” he said.