RAWALPINDI: In the middle of the protests and demonstrations by dozens of candidates, against what they called `bogus recruitments`, on Friday, the Education Department of Rawalpindi displayed the final list of the successful candidates, filling over 1800 vacancies in various schools across the district.

The department`s own incompetence has deprived dozens of teachers of the chance to get a promotion. Despite being shortlisted and interviewed by the selection committee, the candidates were told that they could not be considered for the post because their no-objection certificates (NOCs) were not issued by a competent authority.

On the other hand, the teachers said that they had been interviewed by the selection committee, after a complete scrutiny of their documents, and at that time the education department had not raised any objections.

`In the advertisements, the serving teachers were asked to apply on the basis of an NOC issued by the competent authority.

`When we contacted the department, they told us that the deputy district officer (DDO)is a competent authority.

`On the request of the teachers, he had issued the NOCs. Later on, we were told that only district officer (DO) is the competent authority,` said Sumaira Khalid, a primary school teacher.

She said that, later, the teachers got their NOCs counter-signed by the DO education too.

But on Friday, their cases were rejected.

The teachers said that merely on the basis of a signature issue, they should not be deprived of this opportunity.

`My headmaster forwarded my case to the DO elementary, who issued an NOC. After submitting that NOC, I passed all the tests and interviews, but today, I was told that the DO secondary was the competent authority to issue an NOC,` said a primary school teacher, Wajid Nawaz, who had applied for the post of senior elementary school teacher.

Mr Nawaz further said that if the DO elementary was not a competent authority, then he should not have been issuing the NOCs.

Another junior teacher, Muhammad Rehan, alleged that the officers of the education department were unable to bear the pressure of the political personalities, and they dropped the names of competent candidates from the final lists, just to appease their political mas-ters, who managed to get recruit dozens of their favoured persons.

Another teacher, Sadia Gulzar, said that after a lot of hard work, she passed all the tests and cleared the interviews.

However, she said, before the final interview, the selection committee had raised an objection on her NOC, which was signed by the DO.

She was directed by the committee to get the sign on the NOC from the DO elementary female, before final interview.

`I got the NOC counter-signed from the DO elementary female, after this, I was allowed to appear before the selection committee for the interview, but in the final list, I was rejected on the basis of my NOC,` she added.

Besides the NOC issue, dozens of candidates were deprived of the opportunity on the final day on the basis of their domicile.

Earlier, Kallar Syedian was a part of tehsil Kahuta, however, a few years ago Kallar Syedian was made a separate tehsil.

However, dozens of people from Kallar Syedian still have their domiciles issued by tehsil Kahuta. On Friday, such candidates were dropped from the final list.

District Education Officer (EDO) Qazi Zahoor-Ul-Haq, hung up after this correspondent put the questions to him regarding today`s issue.