K-P govt, education officials deadlocked over BISE appointments

Officials suggest appointment of two officers as board chairmen but govt differs on names

PESHAWAR: The provincial government and the education ministry have reached a deadlock over appointing the chairmen of five educational boards.

Officials in the education department have expressed their reservations over the inclusion of at least two of the five names which have been approved by the provincial government, urging the powers that be to review their decision.

A five-member selection committee, with Additional Chief Secretary Shehzad Khan Bangash in the chair, had finalized five names for appointment as chairmen of the boards. The names include former information secretary Qaiser Alam for Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in Peshawar, Provincial Management Services (PMS) officer Inayatullah Waseem for BISE Mardan, Professor Mukhtiyar for BISE Abbottabad, Cantt 2 Principal Shareef Gul for BISE Bannu and Zahid Rasheed for BISE Dera Ismail Khan.

The committee also suggested appointing Provisional Institute Teachers Education (PITE) director to be appointed as the chief of BISE Kohat.

The government approved all of the names, except for the one proposed for BISE Kohat, and sent the list to the establishment department for issuing a formal appointment notification.

However, the nominated chairman for BISE Mardan turned down the offer after which the committee proposed the name of Education Directorate’s Planning and Development Additional Director (AD) Fareed Khattak and sent it to the provincial government.

When the recommendations were forwarded to the establishment department again, the education department officials expressed their reservations over the names approved for BISE DI Khan and Mardan and urged the government to review them.

Officials suggested to instead include PITE Director Hakeemullah and former MEB chairman Shaukat Hayat in the list.

This, however, has led to a deadlock between the government and the education department.

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