ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has failed to appoint a regular director general of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) even though the post has been vacant since July last year.

The DG (a post of grade 21) works as the head of all 431 schools and colleges in Islamabad and is supposed to help the education ministry in the formulation of policies for the betterment of education.

However, the ministry, which has been carrying out a Rs7 billion repair and maintenance project, has been running the FDE under interim arrangements for the past year, a step which has raised several questions marks.

The post of the DG fell vacant on July 31, 2023, after the abrupt removal of then DG Dr Ikram Ali Malik when the education ministry wanted to hand over a 20-kanal government school plot worth Rs20 billion in F-11 to a private party for running an upscale school under the public-private partnership. The private partner was supposed to provide free education to 20pc students in return for a 22-year lease.

Official says process can be completed in one day as education ministry says it’s almost completed

Mr Malik opposed the move and refused to sign the agreement with the private party, stating that the FDE school land was meant for government schools to offer free education to 100pc students and refused to sign the agreement despite being pressurised by the ministry. Then, a deputy director general Dr Ali Ahmed Khral was asked to sign the agreement, but he too refused.

Both officers had to pay the price for taking a bold stance, as the deputy director general was transferred immediately and on the same day the summary of the DG was sent to the federal government for his removal. Subsequently, Dr Malik, an officer of good reputation, was removed from his position.

Then, another deputy director general was given acting charge of the DG, who signed the said agreement. However, principals and teachers associations filed a case before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the said agreement and the court granted stay orders in favour of principals and teachers. In October last year, while hearing the case, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb of the IHC remarked that this case ought to be sent to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Counsel for the petitioners Kashif Ali Malik had argued before the court that under Article 25-A of the Constitution, the state was supposed to provide free and compulsory education to all school-going children.

Interestingly, the said deputy director general, who was given acting charge of DG FDE retried last month after reaching the age of superannuation. But, the education ministry which had floated an advertisement some months ago for hiring a regular DG of grade 21 and received many applications, instead of completing the process, tried to re-appoint the said deputy director general last month so that he could continue as the interim DG. An official said the advertisement for the post was published on March 29 with a closing date of April 15.

However, the Establishment Division after raising several question marks returned the file. On the other hand, the ministry is still sitting on the file for the appointment of the regular DG.

According to sources, 30 reputed educationists have already been shortlisted for the post of the FDE DG and if the education ministry desires, the process of interviews can be completed in one day.

“I am shocked and surprised why education ministry is not finalising the interview process. The exercise of holding interviews of shortlisted candidates and the process of moving a summary of the top three candidates to the Prime Minister’s Office could be completed in one day, but the ministry is unmoved,” said an official of the FDE.

Meanwhile, in the absence of a DG, Education Joint Secretary Syed Junaid Akhlaq is looking after the affairs of the FDE. “JS Education Junaid is a good officer, but he is not a ‘superman’ as besides performing his JS duties, he is also holding the acting charge of the chairman of the federal board... We need a regular DG,” the official said and added that Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui should look into this matter.

When contacted, an officer of the education ministry said that the process of appointing a regular DG was near completion. “Everything is almost completed and soon interviews of shortlisted candidates will be conducted for appointing regular DG,” he said and added that the perception of any mala fide attention behind the delay was baseless.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2024