ISLAMABAD: It seems the authorities concerned are less interested to fill the vacant post of the Director General Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), with the name of Tanvir Ahmed. the Capital Administration and Development Division (CA&DD) have still failed to finalise this name.
The post of the DG, FDE remained vacant from December 11 after Shahnaz A Raiz got retired from the post on attaining the age of superannuation.
Her retirement notification was also issued by the Ministry of CA&DD almost one month before from the date of retirement.
According to informed sources in the CA&DD, a list of senior most directors serving in the FDE has been submitted to the ministry. As per the list Muhammad Taj Bhatti is the senior most and Tanvir Ahmed is the second senior most director in the FDE.
The sources disclosed that there are major chances of the selection of Ahmed as the DG because he holds the Senior Management Course (SMC) which is a mandatory requirement for the post nowadays. They further continued to say that still the authorities are delaying in finalising this name.
According to the rules of recruitment, appointment for the post of the DG should be made through a promotion for which persons such as either a ‘Director (BPS-19)’ or ‘Principal of a Degree College (BPS-19)’ with a minimum of 17 years’ teaching/administrative experience shall be eligible for the promotion to the post of the DG FDE (BPS-20).
A senior official in the CA&DD while wishing anonymity said that although Ahmed is fulfilling the above requirement, but he is the official of the devolved ministry due to which the ministry of CA&DD is a little bit reluctant to forward his name to the selection committee of the cabinet division.
As per law, the seniority of the devolved ministries officials could not be mixed with the actual staff of any department.
Tanvir Ahmed joined the FDE in March 2011 with the post and the budget on deputation bases as a result of the devolution of the education ministry with some other federal ministries.
He was serving in the ministry as a joint director monitoring. Ahmed was absorbed in the directorate as a permanent director in September 2013 through a presidential ordinance no 5.
The documentary evidences reveal that despite permanent absorption, Ahmed used to receive a deputation allowance of Rs 6000 per month for many months.
Ahmed remained in the good books of the senior bureaucrats of his parent ministry (Education) and also the senior politicians. For example he was appointed as the special investigation officer in 2009 by the then prime minister to probe the excess appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff of the FDE.
It is pertinent to mention here that in 2009, the FDE appointed staff in excess of the requirements. As an aftermath of that the PM office swung into action and constituted a probe committee. However, despite the passage of over year, no result has come forward in this regard.
Moreover, according to the CA&DD officials, a Supreme Court’s judgment may also cause for the ministry’s authorities reluctance to pick Ahmed as the FDE chief. As per the said judgment, all officials who were from devolved ministries should be repatriated to the ministries created in parallel of the devolved ministries. For example, the Ministry of Education and Professional Training was created in place of the Federal Education Ministry.
“Under the ordinance (the employees) were obliged to join the newly created Ministry of Education and Professional Training”, reads the apex court judgment issued on October 17, 2014.
The FDE officials are of the view that the post should be filled on the earlier basis as the remaining vacant of the post is causing public suffering because the FDE is a public dealing department overseeing the 422 educational institutions and has thousands of employees and student enrollments as well in thousands.
In the past this post remained as a musical chair. As many as 13 DGs have been replaced so far. Some of them even served for a few weeks or months. For example former DG Shahnaz A Raiz was appointed and removed from the slot more than one time. Lastly, in 2015 she was restored for the third time against the post through Supreme Court orders.
Despite repeated efforts, CA&DD Secretary Nargis Ghaloo could not be reached to give her comments on the issue.
