WAPDA Cadet College Tarbela is a Cadet College of Pakistan under the management of Water and Power Development Authority.
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The present WAPDA policy unjustly deprives its teaching staff of the benefits that teachers of the same grade and experience enjoy in other federal institutions. Sometimes even after 25 to 30 years service they retire without promotions and thus are unjustly denied opportunities for career advancement
The slow death of governance and consistent hammering in of nails in the coffin of good governance has not been accidental or unbeknownst to those invested the responsibility of ensuring prospering of institutions. It is the result of their follies; for them pursuit of their narrow interests was supreme. They did not care as long as they got absolute power. The crumbling away of governance has resulted in different institutions and organisations of state vying and jostling for position. The struggle between the executive and the judiciary and the rivalry between the police and rangers is a manifestation of this decay.
This decay is also manifestly apparent in autonomous bodies like WAPDA, PSM, PIA, PSO, etc., which though enjoying monopoly and financial support have performed miserably because they have been run as fiefdoms by crony appointees who only had their mentors to please.
WAPDA is an autonomous body that [mis]manages power generation and water resources. It is inefficient, unwieldy and arrogant and has failed in its obligations and duties. It also has an Education Wing that runs 46 schools, two Degree Colleges and one Cadet College at Tarbela.
Some teachers of WAPDA requested me to highlight their problems, as they are victims of the discriminatory and inequitable attitude of WAPDA. The headmasters and Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT) (Selection Grades) have been unsuccessfully demanding implementation of the 1991 four-tier formula so that their pay scales are similar to schools under federal government aegis.
The four-tier formula, i.e. 1:15:34:50, represents the percentage of promotions allocated for teachers and heads of institutions. The promotion for the head of institutions will be 1 percent in BPS-20 grade, 15 percent in BPS-19 grade, 34 percent in BPS-18 grade and 50 percent in BPS-17 grade. Secondly, a TGT (BPS-16) will benefit in terms of promotion till BPS-19 and if even not promoted to higher grade will get financial benefits due to consistent rise in pay scale as per rules.
The present WAPDA policy unjustly deprives its teaching staff of the benefits that teachers of the same grade and experience enjoy in other federal institutions. Sometimes even after 25 to 30 years service they retire without promotions and thus are unjustly denied opportunities for career advancement. This policy is extremely discriminatory towards them.
Recently, the teachers, in a letter with copies to the president, the prime minister, the minister for water and power and to Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Education in the National Assembly, appealed to chairman Shakeel Durrani that as a federal institution WAPDA was under obligation to implement the 1991 four-tier formula. They contended that its implementation would remove their long-standing grievances and promote a better teaching and learning environment.
They pointed out that the chairman WAPDA had generously awarded allowances of Rs 10,000 to degree holders of engineers and the accounts and audit staff while the security staff were given risk allowance, but no such generosity was forthcoming for the teachers.
Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali forwarded the letter on November 10, 2009, to WAPDA with a request that necessary action be taken and his office intimated. He was informed that the four-tier formula was considered but regretted (sic) vide office order number DIR (EDU)/636/2243 dated 10/10/2007, its copy was enclosed for his perusal.
This document states that WAPDA is a corporate body empowered to frame its own service rules. It says the four-tier formula was examined thoroughly before rejection. That their educational institutions are in remote areas where education department facilities do not exist and theirs was a welfare measure for children of WAPDA employees. It claims that the interests of the teaching staff are protected; therefore, the four-tier formula is superfluous. That is the end of the story for them and for all they care the teachers may go to the heavens.
Their claim that theirs is a welfare measure for WAPDA employees’ children residing in remote areas is patently false as cities like Hyderabad and Faisalabad have WAPDA schools. Lahore has three that are affiliated to BISE and the affiliation condition number 8 of 2007 vide 2223 dated August 10, 2006 code numbered 22129 binds WAPDA to adoption of the prevalent pay scale.
The governor Punjab directive (SO) (S111), 16-02-2007 on September 24, 2007 directed that 50 percent of teachers working in BPS-16 be promoted to BPS-17, 35 percent BPS-17 teachers be promoted to BPS-18, 15 percent be uplifted to the higher scale and the SST BPS-16 teachers be given a special allowance. WAPDA refused to comply without any reason. The prime minister’s advisor on education asked them to abide by the directive but was ignored.
A letter to the chief justice, which has appeared on a few blogs as well, has been sent on behalf of the WAPDA employees, parents, teachers, students, asking for correction of anomalies in the WAPDA education wing. The letter states that people from the administration who have no experience of academic matters are managing the education directorate at WAPDA House Lahore. It also states that similarly the Cadet College at Tarbela is being run in absentia by a retired brigadier who has no academic experience. They demand appointment of educationists from WAPDA on both posts and seek the chief justice’s intervention in the matter.
WAPDA emulates functionaries who disregard rules with impunity. In 2007, a news item said that the Audit Report 2000-01 revealed that Pakistan Post suffered a loss of Rs 14,309.9 million under its former director-general, a retired brigadier, Agha Masudul Hassan, and despite massive losses, he refused audit whenever teams of the auditor-general approached the postal department. He had on his own declared the post office an autonomous body and refused to obey any government rules and principles. This is exactly how WAPDA is acting to avoid fulfilling its obligations to its unjustly deprived teachers.
The teachers of WAPDA institutions are victims of wilful discrimination and for the sake of the welfare of WAPDA institutions’ teachers and their families and better education of the WAPDA employees’ children, their demand for the four-tier formula should be immediately met and all their grievances redressed. They are unjustly being deprived of their rightful benefits. I have written this piece hoping against hope that someone will notice the plight of WAPDA institutions’ teachers and redress the same as this injustice has continued long enough and needs to be remedied urgently.
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s.
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