Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) has failed to find out a person fit for a long vacant post of the Chairman of Private Educational Institutions Regu-latory Authority (PEIRA).

The Federal Secretary Ministry of CADD Hassan Iqbal told Daily Times that a summery has been moved by the ministry to Prime Minister Secretariat for the appointment of PEIRA’s chairman. He said, “We have conducted interviews of eight persons against the post of the Chairman PEIRA but no one could meet the required criteria.”

He further said; “we are preparing to re-advertise the post as in response of current advertisement we didn’t find out any suitable person for the post.”

PEIRA is a body empowered to register and regulate the Private Educational Institutions in Islamabad Capital Territory whereas the enforcement of relevant rules and regulations on private education sector for the provision of quality education to the residents of Islamabad is also a duty of the authority.

The post of its permanent chairman is vacant from last three years. However, currently the authority is being headed by Musadiq Ahmed Khan on ad hoc bases. There are 1130 private educational institutions registered with the authority having enrolment of 221,125 students including 126,286 boys and 94,839 girls, whereas the total teachers’ strength in these institutions is 15477.

A vacancy for the permanent chairman was advertised by the Ministry of CAAD in February 2016 to seek applications against the post.

Sources inside the ministry of CADD have informed the Daily Times that the authority has interviewed some selected candidates among those who applied for the post equivalent to BPS 20 but nothing has been finalized so far.

An officer of the ministry on the condition of anonymity has briefed; “The appointment of permanent chairman is quite important because two issues need prompt attention of the authority; the issue related to the heavy increase of tuition fee in private institutions and the CDA operation against non-conforming use of residential buildings by Private educational institutions.”

Earlier, a section of the media on Friday reported that the three names of short listed candidates have been sent to the Prime Minister secretariat for the appointment. The list of candidates after interview includes Dr. Najma Tariq, Dr. Tanveer Kiani and Touqeer-ul-Islam. Now, the Prime Minister would select one name among these three for the appointment of the permanent chairman of PEIRA.