More than two months have passed since the Senate had passed the Islamabad wedlock teachers’ bill for their permanent absorption in FDE schools, but the bill is yet to see the light of the day as it has reportedly mysteriously gone missing in the corridors of the Prime Minister’s Office and is yet to be sent to the Aiwan-e-Sadr for President’s signature.
“This is mysterious, shocking and quite irritating that at a time when a number of bills passed by the National Assembly and the Senate have been signed by the President and incorporated as Act of Parliament, a simple bill related to the ‘welfare and protection of family life’ of 300 teachers on deputation passed by the both the Houses is not yet signed by President Arif Alvi,’ said one of the lady teachers under wedlock.
Earlier, the Prime Minister’s Office had sent the bill to the Ministry of Law for comment despite knowing that a bill is usually sent to the Law Ministry for comment before its passage, not afterwards. This delayed the bill and finally, the Law Ministry returned it to the PM Office with the observation that the bill was ‘fine’ and since both the houses of the Parliament had unanimously passed it there was no need for the Ministry’s comment.
Despite the Law Ministry’s clear observation the bill was again kept and not routed to the President House. Meanwhile, the Caretaker Prime Minister left for the UNO. Now even more than a week after Prime Minister’s return, the bill has not yet been sent to the President House and the teachers, mostly lady teachers working for years in Islamabad’s schools on wedlock are keenly awaiting when it would finally be sent to the President House as it is directly linked with their family life and future of their kids.
According to a senior official in the PM Office, the Prime Minister is not aware of what is going on and why the teachers of Islamabad have been suffering because of some bureaucrat or ‘hidden hand’ in his office. Had the Prime Minister or even Education Minister any knowledge of this unnecessary delay they would have taken serious action against those responsible, said the source.
The interim government’s Minister for Education Madad Ali Sindhi is a kind-hearted man and has recently prioritized the issues of the daily wage teachers assuring them that they would not be removed. This was also echoed in Monday’s meeting of the Senate Committee on Education chaired by Senator Irfanul Haq Siddiqui. The “Protection of Family Life & Wedlock Bill 2023” is related to the life of 300 lady teachers in various schools of FDE or he would personally follow it and get it moved to the President House for further action and is no less important than the daily wage teachers case, said another lady teacher.
These teachers have been running from pillar to post pleading with every government not to repatriate them to their parent departments as their families are settled here in Islamabad and going back to their native towns would mean a complete breakdown of their family life. After their incessant struggle the bill was moved with the consent of all the political parties and both houses of the Parliament passed it. Speaker of the National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf also gave a ruling in October last year directing the government to induct these teachers on a regular basis. Islamabad’s schools are already facing an acute shortage of teachers (more than 1,000 posts are lying vacant) and if these teachers are repatriated the schools will be dealt a serious blow.
