The federal education ministry has issued a notification for the removal of two members of the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) after their appointment was termed illegal.
The notification has been issued after the approval of the federal cabinet. The federal cabinet has also decided to appoint PEIRA members on a tenure basis in the future.
According to documents available with The Express Tribune, the education ministry officials briefed the federal cabinet the PEIRA consists of a chairman and two members under the PEIRA Act 2013.
They said that service rules for the employees of the PIERA were enforced through a notification issued on November 22, 2006, however, they were not binding on the chairman and members.
The education ministry officials said that members of academics and registration were deployed on a contractual basis for two years although the service rules were still unclear.
In 2009, the post of member academics was advertised as a regular post and Imitiaz Ali Qureshi was recruited. The deployment of member registration Waqas Mehmood Kayani was also done next year, the education ministry officials said.
The education ministry officials said that the appointment of the two members on a permanent basis had been done in the absence of rules.
The audit officials also termed the recruitment of the officials against PEIRA rules.
In light of a petition, the Islamabad High Court had also directed the secretaries of the cabinet and education ministry to seek the advice of the cabinet on whether the posts could be tenure-based or on a permanent basis.
The high court had also issued suspension orders of both members on January 11, 2021, after it found a lack of transparency in the recruitment process.
The education ministry’s summary to the federal cabinet had recommended removing both members of PEIRA as they had been recruited illegally in the absence of rules.
The federal cabinet approved the summary and instructed to appoint new members under ICT-PEIRA Rules 2015.
The federal education ministry has also issued a notification regarding the removal of both members from November 23.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2021.
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