PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday dismissed the writ petition of the employees challenging appointments to the management cadre of the Education Department through the Public Service Commission (PSC) under the new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education policy.
Shah Hussain and 119 other male and female assistant district officers (ADOs) and deputy district officers (DDOs) of the Education Department had filed a writ petition in the high court, praying it to restrain the PSC from appointment of male and female ADOs and DDOs under the education policy 2009.

When a PHC division bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel took up the petition, the secretary education informed the court that the government in May 2009 notified a new policy under which the government had divided the department into management and teaching cadres. He said under the new policy, 40 per cent appointments in the management cadre would be fresh and 60 per cent would be made from the teaching cadre through the PSC.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Salahuddin, submitted before the court that the PSC had ignored the 60 per cent quota for the teaching cadre in the appointments. He said the petitioners were first appointed as teachers in the department and then promoted to the management side. “They had 10 to 15-year experience on the posts of ADOs and DDOs, but will be replaced by the fresh ones, which is great discrimination with the employees,” he added.

The lawyer argued that the government had not given an option to the employees whether they would remain on their posts or wanted to return to the teaching cadre. Additional Advocate General Naveed Akhtar informed the court that most of the petitioners had failed to clear the PSC examination. He said the PSC was making appointments under the new policy.

The court dismissed the petition observing that the petitioners could challenge any wrongdoings in the PSC appointment process but had no right to stop the appointments being made under the new education policy.The news