Govt fails to activate Rehmatul lil Alameen Authority
The National Rehmant lil Alamin Authority could not be activated after the government notified it in the gazette due to the lack of interest of the education ministry.
The current government had done away with the previous government’s National Rehmat lil Alameen Authority on June 6. The government also passed a new bill with amendments in the National Assembly and Senate on June 9.
The new chairman and members of the authority could not be appointed and salaries could not be released to the employees.
The current government presented the amendment bill of the National Rehmant lil Alamin and Khatam-un-Nabiyyin Authority in the National Assembly on June 6 and in the Senate on June 9 and sent a summary to the president for signing. The Senate then sent the Act to the national printing press for gazetting after a delay in mid-July but no attention was paid to activating the authority due to the lack of interest of the education minister.
Sources in the education ministry said that in mid-July, a letter was sent to the Prime Minister regarding the activation of the Authority, the appointment of new members and the chairman but that letter is still lying in the establishment division.
According to sources, the former members and chairman of the Authority will be reappointed because the previous government had recruited five members on recommendations who had not 14 years of experience as per the requirement. According to the Act, the prime minister is the pattern chief of the Authority and as per his instructions, a committee under the supervision of the federal minister of education will be established which will select 10-member advisory members for the Authority consisting of national and internationally renowned experts.
The government may likely retain some of the 10 honorary members of the former advisory board. However, there is a possibility that eminent scholars will be selected from Pakistan instead of abroad for the selection of more members.
Eight members will be elected on a permanent basis to carry out the main objectives of the Authority who are biographical scholars and experts in different fields.
According to Amendment Clause No 6 and sub-section 4 of the Act, the Authority will have eight members instead of six permanent members, including two Muslim National Assembly members, six well-known biographical scholars who have the standard of competence, the popular ability of research in various fields while such a biographical scholar who knows how to translate books in different languages and is an expert in new creative ideas while the two Muslim members in the National Assembly will be one from the government and the other from the opposition.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2022.