Pechuho becomes health secretary

After serving for three years in the education dept, he has been transferred

KARACHI: After having worked for more than three years for reforms in the education and literacy department (ELD), the schools secretary of the education department, Dr Fazlullah Pechuho, has been removed and transferred from his post.

According to the notification issued by chief secretary Rizwan Memon on Friday, Pechuho, who is an officer of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) BS-20, has been transferred and posted with immediate effect and until further orders as secretary of the health department. The replaced health secretary, Dr Muhammad Usman Chachar of PAS BS-20, has been transferred and directed to report to services, general administration and coordination department. The decision was taken at a meeting on December 10, in which CM Murad Ali Shah asked Pechuho to look after the health department as his services are needed in the health sector.



According to sources, the top three candidates for the post are former CM Qaim Ali Shah's daughter, Naheed Durrani, his son-in-law, Iqbal Durrani, and the present CM's brother-in-law, Asif Hyder Shah.

As of now, the secretary for college education, Riaz Memon, has been given the additional charge of secretary for schools education. "I have new challenges and new shoes to fill now," Pechuho told The Express Tribune. He added that he will devote his services to the betterment of the health department.

Pechuho's tenure

Being one of the most powerful and influential secretaries and bureaucrats in Sindh, Pechuho has many feathers in his cap. The biggest achievement and reform that he has brought was the biometric registration of teaching and non-teaching staff. He has unmasked 10,000 ghost employees in the department and ensured the attendance of teachers in schools. The outgoing secretary also has the credit of exposing all teachers who were not coming to schools but were still receiving their salaries on time.

Pechuho has also revamped many schools that were closed due to shortage of facilities or low number of students. Introducing schemes like girls' stipend, he has helped increase school attendance and put an end to teachers' union in schools in rural Sindh.

Another development in the education department was the establishment of a complaint management system of the education department, ILMI, which can be used by students, teachers, administration and the common public. In Pechuho's tenure, the monitoring end evaluation of the department was made better despite the disputes between the minister and the secretary.

Pechuho has always been an influential secretary, which is why when, in August, 2015, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani was given the portfolio of the minister for the education department in place of Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Bijarani refused to take charge. He said that he could not work with the 'influential' secretary of the department.



Following Pechuho's actions against ghost teachers, many influential leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party, including MPAs, MNAs and senators, started lobbying against him. According to officials close to Pechuho, leaders such as Khursheed Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Pir Mazharul Haq and others were at the forefront against him because Pechuho always fought and tried to work on merit.

Meanwhile, the chairperson of the APSMA, Syed Khalid Shah, was worried about the fate of  Pechuho’s initiatives. The suggestions of the advisory committee have yet to be approved to revise some of the rules for private schools that were made in 2001. "Whenever any new minister or secretary comes, he annuls the [previous] recommendations and [demands that] new rules [be submitted] according to him," he complained, saying that the revision of rules will be stuck in limbo now.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2016.