Redundant office : Sindh Colleges DG’s post deemed dispensable

As Sindh Colleges Director General (DG) Ghulam Mustafa Charan reaches the end of his tenure, which will conclude on September 6, many big-wigs among the province’s pedagogues are eyeing the soon-to-be-vacant position.

The hopefuls, which also include regional directors of Sindh’s colleges, appear to be lured by the attractive budget, nominal professional engagement and minimal office and administrative responsibilities afforded to the position.

It is imperative to establish here that all regional directorates of colleges in Sindh are subordinate to the Directorate General of Colleges, while DG Colleges himself reports to the Secretary Colleges. However, despite the office’s seniority, the tasks associated with it are primarily limited to relaying information, in some sense akin to the operations of a post office.

In regard to which, the provincial education minister has also expressed his views on the directorate’s redundancy, and its growing lack of purpose. Going as far as to state that following Charan’s retirement, there might not be any new hiring at all and the office could be axed altogether, leaving regional directors to report directly to Secretary Colleges. “We are thinking of replacing the post with the creation of a post for the College Education Curriculum Wing. The provincial government wishes to change the curriculum at the intermediate level,” he asserted.

Start of the end

The tale of the directorate’s redundancy started in 2017, following the retirement of Prof Nasir Ansar. Since then, this office has not been able to chalk-out any policy aimed at the improvement of academics or betterment of infrastructure in Sindh’s government colleges. Neither could it follow-up on any existing or former policies in this regard.

On the contrary, some of the officers who were appointed to the post of DG Colleges on the basis of nepotism, continued to work under political pressure. Nevertheless, their work was still limited to forwarding various files and summaries given by the regional directors to the secretary colleges by affixing the postal numbers of the directorate.

Meanwhile, Adamjee Science College’s former Principal Prof Moazzam Haider also temporarily assumed the post of DG Colleges and tried to improve the academics and infrastructure of colleges in Karachi. He however alleges being subjected to rude behaviour in the hands of then secretary colleges, which prompted him to resign from the post. In 2017, the annual budget of this directorate was Rs40 million, which has increased to Rs70 million in the current financial year.

In addition to the post of DG Colleges, the directorate also has one post each for director finance, director human resources and director inspector as well as five posts for deputy director and three posts for assistant directors. That being said, the incumbent director of human resources has not been able to formulate any policy with regards to college lecturers and academics while the incumbent director for inspection has also not fulfilled his responsibility to visit and scrutinise colleges.

Interestingly enough, the incredible budget of the directorate, one of its most luring perks, seems to represent the expenditure for an office which no longer seems to have any responsibility or purpose.

Big budget, no show

A review of the 2017 budget for the directorate reveals that Rs32 million were allocated for machinery and equipment and related repairs and maintenance, Rs650,000 for transport, Rs2.2 million for fuel, while Rs5.3 million were earmarked for running the affairs of degree colleges, 550,000 for training and the rest of the budget was for salaries.

On the other hand, the budget for the current financial year is about Rs70 million from which over Rs24.5 million will be spent on account of salaries of officers and staff alone. Apart from this, Rs18.694 million will be spent on allowances, Rs800,000 on medical charges, Rs254,000 on telephones, Rs14.8 million for TA/DA, Rs350,000 for utilities, Rs4.3 for miscellaneous expenditures, Rs4.422 million for computer and Rs5.5 for repairs and maintenance.

Looking at the appointments to the post of DG colleges during the last four years, it is revealed that Dr Nasir Ansar retired on July 5, 2017 after performing his duties on the post for some years. Due to a tug of war between the influential teachers, the post remained vacant and then Prof Saleem Ghori was given additional charge of the post, who retired after working for just a few months, after which the post again remained vacant for some time.

Removal and retirements

At the time of his appointment, he had four years left in his retirement. However, he chose to work for only a few months. The then DG Colleges had bitterly kicked Prof Moazzam Haider out of his office, which eventually drove him to resign. Later, the regional director of colleges for Hyderabad Prof Abdul Hameed Chandar succeeded in taking additional charge of this post, later moving to permanent charge, but could do little for the betterment of colleges during his tenure. He too was eventually removed, making way for Charan who is now mere days away from his own retirement.

Sources privy to the office’s operations allege that most who assume positions at the directorate do it for the power and privileges that come with the service, with no plans of orchestrating any kind of development.

“Former secretary Baqar Abbas held the double charge for a long time and remained the secretary finance as well as the secretary college education department. However, he did not pay attention to his position as secretary colleges. Similarly, the current secretary Khalid Haider Shah also remains incognizant of the matters relating to his department, still unable to do anything for the directorate,” alleged sources on condition of anonymity.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2021.