Abuse of authority: Approved. No, wait. Not approved!

Chief Secretary says universities and boards dept tried to sack BSEK chairman on medical grounds in his absence

KARACHI: The Sindh Universities and Boards Department, it appears, tried to use the chief secretary’s leave of absence to its advantage to replace the current chairman of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) on ‘medical grounds’.

Arguing that the BSEK Chairman Dr Saeeduddin was unfit for the post on account of being a cardiac patient, Universities and Boards Secretary Riazuddin Qureshi managed to obtain approval for a summary calling for the former’s dismissal, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah told The Express Tribune.

“I was utterly astounded when I found out that a summary seeking the BSEK chairman’s dismissal had been sent to the Chief Minister House,” he said.



The attempt to sack Dr Saeeduddin was thwarted, however, after Shah took notice of the development while still on leave. The chief secretary said he re-sent the summary to the CM House with an advisory note, urging ‘further deliberation’.

On taking up the matter again, the chief minister decided to reject the summary calling for the BSEK chairman’s dismissal, CM House sources said.

In his summary — a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune - Universities and Boards Secretary Qureshi proposed temporarily appointing Sindh Trade Testing Board Chairman Muzaffar Ali Bhutto in Dr Saeeduddin’s stead. Muzaffar, Qureshi recommended, should head BSEK till a permanent chairman is appointed — a process that would have taken nearly three months.

“When I asked the universities and boards secretary why he recommended Muzaffar Ali Bhutto as Dr Saeeduddin’s replacement, he claimed he did so under the chief minister’s instructions,” Chief Secretary Shah said. The chief minister, however, denied ever issuing such an order, he added.

Qureshi, in his summary, insisted that, “Chairman, Board of Secondary Education Karachi Professor Dr Saeeduddin, who has completed three years of his tenure, has undergone bypass surgery and needs time to recover.”

“Hence, he cannot serve the committee with his utmost capacity,” he wrote, referring to the 1972 Boards Ordinance which authorises the controlling authority to make alternative arrangements if the chairperson’s post is left vacant due to leave, illness or other reasons.

Interestingly, Sindh Board of Technical Education (SBTE) Chairman Dr Masroor Sheikh also underwent cardiac surgery a few days after Dr Saeeduddin’s surgery three months ago, sources told The Express Tribune. Both officials are healthy and have been carrying out their assigned duties, they said.



Sources also pointed out that around the same time the summary arguing for his dismissal was sent to the chief minister, Dr Saeeduddin, in his capacity as IBCC Sports Committee chief, was in Baku, Azerbaijan, accompanying a Pakistani students’ hockey team. His leave in this regard was approved by none other than the universities and boards secretary himself, they said. Chief Secretary Shah said he left to perform Hajj around that time as well.

Meanwhile, the posts of examination secretaries and controllers in all three boards have been vacant for the last five years with only written tests of candidates conducted so far, sources said. According to them, certain candidates doubted the transparency of the tests and took the matter to court, where it remains pending to date.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2019.