The Lahore High Court on Wednesday stayed process for the appointment of educators in four districts of Punjab and sought written reply from the education department by March 5. Several candidates questioning eligibility criteria for educators alleged it was a discriminatory treatment with them despite having equivalence certificates from the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The counsel of the petitioners argued that the government had not been entertaining candidates having degrees of "Shahadatul Almiya" which stood equal to MA Islamiat. He said the HEC had already declared the sanad/degree of registered madaaras/religious seminaries equal to Masters Degree. However, he said the provincial government refused to entertain the candidates having degrees of Shahadatul Almiya despite equivalence certificates issued by the HEC.

The lawyer said the petitioners having degrees of Bachelor of Science was equal to Masters as per the HEC. However, the government also refused to entertain the petitioners for the posts of the educators from BS-9 to 16.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018