Recipe for disaster: Political influence to blight ‘devolution of powers’ in education

The chief minister’s ‘controversial’ search committee given even more powers.

KARACHI:

The chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, has delegated more powers to the search committee that was formed to govern the process of appointing university vice-chancellors and heads of education boards.

The committee, since its inception, had drawn severe criticism from academic quarters for its propensity towards making politically-motivated appointments to the public-sector universities as well as secondary and higher secondary education boards.



Apart from its earlier responsibilities, the four-member search committee, with the approval of the chief minister, will now have the power to appoint the examination controllers and secretaries at the education boards of Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana.

A formal proposal in this regard was approved by the chief minister last week, confirmed Syed Mumtaz Shah, the chief minister’s secretary for universities and education boards.

This committee, in case of any future vacant position for an examination controller or a secretary, will invite applications by advertising the post through the media. After scrutinising the applications, the committee will shortlist the most suitable candidates, who will be invited for interviews. The candidate selected by the committee will then be recommended to the chief minister for final approval.

What is ironic in the whole scheme is that in place of eminent academics, this whole selection process will be governed by Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, a sister of the Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, Dr Asim Hussain, one of his close aides, and Syed Mumtaz Shah, the chief minister’s secretary for universities and education boards. The lone academic in the CM’s search committee is Prof Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, the former vice-chancellor of the Sindh University.

While the practice of delegating powers to the lower-level professional bodies had been lauded by academics, they believed that the viability and benefits of devolution of powers depended largely on the neutrality and credibility of the bodies formed, such as the search committee for appointments of vice-chancellors and heads of the education boards.

“The decisions taken by the search committee will hardly be respected by the academic quarters unless it holds a majority representation by top academics of national and international repute,” remarked former Higher Education Commission chairperson Dr Attaur Rehman, while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Earlier, with ratification of the controversial Sindh Universities Law (Amendment) Act on August 28, 2013, the academic search committee formed by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan was dissolved as the new law took away the discretionary powers of the Governor in appointing vice-chancellors of public sector universities and empowered the chief minister to take over the administrative, financial and academic control of the provincial institutes of higher education.

Subsequently, the chief minister formed the four-member search committee on October 24, 2013, replacing the former search committee that included academicians such as the Institute of Business Administration dean and director Dr Ishrat Husain, Karachi University vice-chancellor Dr Muhammad Qaiser, Dow University of Health Sciences vice-chancellor Prof Dr Masood Hameed Khan, Sindh Agriculture University vice-chancellor Dr AQ Mughal as well as former chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court Haziqul Khairi and a representative of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Later, in March this year, the CM’s search committee was given the additional responsibility to appoint the chairpersons at the provincial education boards apart from holding the selection board for the appointment of vice-chancellors at the public-sector universities.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2014.