Latest news with #DisciplineandAccountabilityAct
Business Recorder
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
LHC explains how a govt servant absent from duty can be sacked
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has held that a government servant who remains absent from his duty for less than one year cannot be removed from service without cogent reasons. The court said Section 4 of Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act (PEEDA) manifests that where absence from duty is for more than one year and same is proved, the authority has no option but to impose penalty of compulsory retirement or removal or dismissal from service. However, where absence from duty is less than one year, the authority under Section 4 of PEECA has discretion to impose penalty of compulsory retirement or removal or dismissal from service supported by cogent justification, in accordance with principles of proportionality, structured discretion and administrative fairness, the court added. The court passed this order on a petition of a government employee, Abusar Ghaffary, who was working as computer operator with the Punjab Emergency Services Department. The court allowed the petition and reinstating the petitioner into service and set aside impugned order and observed that no reasons are recorded to impose major penalty of removal from service against the petitioner. The court; however, held that the petitioner will not be entitled for back benefits as per the law. The petitioner's counsel submitted that under Section 7 (f) (ii) of PEEDA, where charge of absence of duty is less than one year, major penalty including removal or dismissal from service cannot be imposed. Admittedly, the regular inquiry against the petitioner was dispensed with under Section 5 (1) of the PEEDA and petitioner was removed from service under Section 4 (1) (b) (v) of PEEDA for being absent from duty for 63 days, the court observed. Where the regular inquiry is dispensed with, the procedure prescribed under section 7 of PEEDA is to be followed, the court added. The court also observed that the respondent keeping in view the principles of proportionality has not exercised discretion in structured manner. No doubt, in the impugned order, the petitioner's previous service record and penalties have been referred to; however, the said record was neither confronted to the petitioner nor petitioner was charge sheeted in show-cause notice on account of poor previous service record, the court added. The court said, when petitioner was already penalised previously, his current removal from service order on the basis of said previous penalties will amount to double jeopardy. The court; however, observed that the petitioner's reinstatement shall be subject to a fresh determination by the competent authority regarding the imposing of penalty against the petitioner, which must commensurate with the gravity of misconduct and after giving cogent reasons. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
30-03-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
Absentee professors to face music
The college education sector across Punjab has been affected by the absence of professors from their duties, prompting the provincial higher education department to take action against them. According to sources in the sector, the students are facing difficulties in completing their courses because of the absence of professors of computer, science and language subjects. The sources said that around 40 assistant professors in various districts had remained absent from their duties for the past year and the Punjab Higher Education Department had appeared helpless to address the problem. They said the department was set to start taking action against the professors remaining absent from their duties. The problem is more severe in the districts where students rely completely on the college teachers for their education. The issue of teachers remaining absent from their duties is especially serious in South Punjab and remote districts where professors of science, mathematics and computer science fail to take classes. The students of science subjects, including those of BS, are the worst affected. The sources in the higher education department said information about around 40 such assistant professors from various districts had come to the knowledge of the authorities and departmental action would soon be initiated against them. "These 40 assistant professors have been absent from their duties for the past many months. They also include female professors. We sent them a final warning to join their duties," said a senior official of the Punjab Higher Education Department. The official said complaints against such teachers had also been received from students and their parents. The department will protect the interest of the students by taking action under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act (PEEDA), the official said. He said the department would also take action against the principals of the colleges in which the professors habitually skipped classes. However, an office-bearer of a college professors' union said the majority of the teachers had been absent from duties because of their transfer to remote districts after their promotion as assistant professors. He said most of the teachers found absent were those who had been promoted about six months ago and later transferred to other, remote districts. "How can a woman or a senior professor in old age and in the presence of their families afford to go to a district 300km away? It is mismanagement on the part of the higher education department that it transferred professors to remote districts, because of which they are not willing to join their new duties and the students suffer because the teaches are not available in classes," said a female professor. A former president of the Punjab Professors and College Lecturers Association, Dr Tariq Kaleem, said, "It is the right of the professors to be promoted, but it is not fair to transfer them to faraway districts." He said there was a need for the department to implement a formula for the promotion of college teachers under which the posts of the promoted teachers were upgraded in the colleges in which they were currently serving.
