Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: No rules in the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) as several administrative slots in the directorate have been filled by teachers in violation of fundamental recruitment rules, Daily Times learnt reliably.

As per list available with this scribe, there are around 17 teachers of various cadres serving in the FDE against several key administrative slots in violation of rules. Some of these officials have been serving since 2007.

Furthermore, many of them are serving against the higher Basic Pay Scales (BPS) than their original ones.

According to the recruitment rules of Civil Service Act 1973, the faculty should have been appointed only for teaching purposes wherein the posting or transfers against the administrative posts was a violation of the terms of conditions of their appointments.

The list of such officials concludes the names of Abdul Waheed Principle in Islamabad Model School for Boys (IMSB), G-6/4 while he is currently working against the post of Director on dual charge. Professor Tariq Masood is Associate Professor in (IMCB), I-8/3 whereas currently he serves against the key post of Director Model colleges in the FDE in (BPS-19). Beside these couple of officials many others are being served against the said rules. Such officials included as Anwar Khan, Hassan Imran Baig, Sheikh Muhammad Ali, FazalMehboob, Amjid Ali, Muhammad AfzalSaleemi, Muhammad Asif Khan, Noor Ahmed Khan, RizawanHusssainCheema, ZafarIqbalYousufzai, Asif Khan, Said Akbar, ImdadChanna, Ishtaiq Ahmed and Muhammad Ishtaiq.

Moreover, said officials do not have any administrative experience throughout in their previous services. They are working against the various cadres in different sections in the directorate including Admin section, Accounts section, Information Technology section, Monitoring section and others.

The Section 2 of the Civil Service Act 1973 also directs that the faculty of the special cadre service cannot be transferred to any other field job. While briefing about the special cadre teacher, an official in the directorate seeking anonymity, quoted IT teacher, Physical Training Instructor, etc as special cadre faculty members. In the several letters to FDE authorities, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CA&DD) also expressed concerns over the posting of teaching staff in the FDE but still in vain. In recent, on January 20, CA&DD wrote such letter to DG, FDE (copy of letter obtained by this correspondent).

This violation of law was also raised in a Special Audit Report conducted by Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP). Moreover, Cabinet Standing Committees and some courts in their verdicts also object the issue.

While commenting on the issue, an official in the CA&DD wished not to be named, said that due to none-holding the administrative experience, these officials made errors in routine work proceedings. In the result, people who suffered from these errors approached various courts because it is the department that oversees to 422 educational institutions and thousands of officials being served with these institutions. He said that around 450 officials including teaching and none-teaching staff have approached the various courts for justice when they failed to acquire their own rights due to the mismanagement of the FDE’s authorities.

It is pertinent to mention that in the result of a news report published by Daily Times in June 2016, some teaching staff was repatriated to their respective institutions. However, some others again posted in the Directorate.

Joint Secretary CA&DD and DG FDE Ayesha Farooq admitted the facts. She said that the positions are filled by teachers due to shortage of ‘eligible staff’ for the administrative positions, adding that these slots have been filled till new appointments for this purpose will made.

To reply a question, Farooq said that she assumed office recently while the previous administrations did not make new hiring since 2000. “There are several things to do in this office and I am committed for this to do them gradually and in sequence”, she claimed.