Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Quality education in the federal capital may has become just a distant dream, because facts reveal that nothing more than tall claims by the higher authorities are made about improving the quality and standard of educaton.

The educational monitoring body which is known as the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is busy in internal rifts, and the fundamental purpose of the body’s establishment is not being practised, Daily Times has learnt.

According to the official sources, two senior/responsible officials of the FDE, namely, the Director General (DG), Shahnaz Raiz and the Director Administration Abdul Waheed, are involved in confrontation with each other instead of performing their regular official duties. They are levelling allegations of corruption and mismanagement against each other, the sources added.

Waheed wrote a letter to te DG with several complaints and allegations against her and sent the copy to the Secretary and the Additional Secretary, Capital Administration and Development Authority, (CADD), a copy of which was obtained by by Daily Times.

“You are least interested in the official affairs of the FDE. You only concentrate on your personal matters/bills,etc, you don’t know anything about the official business”, Waheed levelled the allegation against Shahnaz in the letter.

Waheeed also said in the letter that the DG was devising negative propaganda against him all the time which caused suffering in the ‘working environment’.

Despite repeated calls and text messages to get her version Shahnaz failed to respond.

According to the FDE sources, Waheed was appointed as Director Admin by DG Shahnaz, on her personal interest. Earlier, before his appointment as Director Admin, Waheed was serving as an Area Education Officer (AEO) monitoring.

Waheed was deputised in the FDE when the ministry of education was devolved under the 18th Amendment of the Constitution, in 2011, where he was serving as the Deputy Director in the monitoring cell.

Under the Presidential ordinance No 5 September 2013, Waheed had been adsorbed as a permanent official of the FDE. But, as per the ordinance he did not fulfil the criteria for the post of director admin (on which he is still serving). As per the ordinance his line of promotion is in the monitoring cell in the FDE instead of the administration.

The CADD is unfamiliar about the entire episode. Despite repeated attempts, the Additional Secretary Malik Qaiser Majeed, could not be approached. However, the Secretary Hassan Iqbal, expressed his ignorance over the matter.

When asked about the reception of the letter by his office, Iqbal declined to comment admitting: “I did not receive any such letter thus far”.

Very interestingly he showed his ignorance as well as his familiarity about the matter mentioning that “there were no rifts. Instead some misunderstandings were there between both the officials and I will soon hold a discussion with them to resolve the matter”, Iqbal claimed.

Another official of the education ministry, Muhammad Tanveer, was also absorbed under the same ordinance. He is serving as the Director Estate Management in the FDE. According to his available documentary information, Tanveer also used to get a deputation allowance till May 2016. whereas according to the rules when any official is made part of the permanent staff, he/she should have to withdraw the deputation allowance. When contacted Tanveer refused to speak.

Meanwhile , in some examples of mismanagement and sheer violation of rules, around 30 officials are working on the various admin slots in the FDE — they have been teaching professionals throughout their career. The involvement of the teaching staff in official deeds was badly affecting the students studies, claimed the FDE sources.

Tariq Masood is on the top of the list. Currently he is serving as Director Colleges in the FDE. The Director’s post is an administrative slot while Masood does not have the experience because he only served as a teacher in his entire previous service. His actual posting is “Assistant Professor” at the Islamabad Boys College G-6/3.

Another couple of teachers, Sadia and Saima — are currently serving as Area Education Officers (AEOs) while by profession they are teachers in IMSG F11/3 and IMSG E-8 respectively.

The AEO is the administrative slot and as per law it should be selected through the Federal Public Service Commission after passing through the whole procedure of the Commission.

Under the recruitment rules the faculty should have been appointed only for teaching purposes wherein the posting or transfers against the administrative posts is a violation of the appointments’ descriptions.

Furthermore, according to Section 2 of the Civil Service Act 1973, the faculty of the special service cadre, cannot be transferred to any other field job.

The available information suggests that beside the said rules, the posting/or transfers have been discouraged and declared void at various forums including the Cabinet Standing Committee meetings, in the Islamabad High Court and the apex court verdicts.

Another official is among several others — Ghulam Yasin Awan is a principal at IMSB Maira Akku (Rural area of sector Tarnol), while he is currently serving at the post of Deputy Director in the Directorate. Very surprisingly Yasin is functioning on BPS-19 whereas he is performing his duties against the BPS-18 slot as DD.

According to a document this maladministration including the Awan posting, was also brought to the notice of the Wafaqi Muhtasib in 2013 wherein the FDE informed the Muhasib that “all the appointments against the administrative posts in FDE will be filled up in accordance with the rules and regulations on merit basis”. But the practical exercise has not been done so far, a source regretted.

While sharing an official document, a DD in the FDE said that around 450 officials, including teaching and none-teaching staff had approached the various courts for justice when they failed to acquire their own rights due to the mismanagement of the entity.

These exercises are only aimed at damaging the performance of the students. This becomes clear when one notices that not even a single student could get secure any position in the matriculation examination recently announced by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE).