Regularisation of employees: Before decisive meeting, govt changes HEC’s ED

Naqvi was taking personal interest in the regularisation of 200 employees.

ISLAMABAD:

The ongoing tussle of power between the country’s bureaucracy and higher education’s watchdog took a new turn on Thursday when the government replaced a senior official of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

According to an Establishment Division notification issued late Wednesday night, Dr Sohail H Naqvi was replaced with Major (retd) Qamar Zaman.

The new move left officials of the commission divided.

Zaman reached his office on Thursday morning to a welcoming group comprising permanent employees of the commission. He also met HEC Chairman Javaid R Laghari and took the charge of his office.

However, another group, consisting of the contractual employees, criticised the appointment, terming it a play on the commission’s autonomous status.

At the centre of the appointment controversy is the regularisation of some 200 contractual employees. The permanent employees feel that their grades and promotions will be affected by the regularisations.

Naqvi was taking personal interest in the regularisation of these employees. A meeting of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Regularization of Contract/Daily Wages Employees under the chairmanship of Khurshid Shah was to decide the fate of these employees on Thursday, but the notification preceded the meeting, jeopardising the meeting and the decision.



Sources in the HEC said Naqvi gathered contractual employees in an auditorium on Thursday and said he will continue to work as the ED until the HEC “orders me to leave because an MP cannot be removed once appointed”. Naqvi was appointed under the Management Pay (MP) scales and is, among eight other officials, at the centre of a controversy over extensions in their terms.

On Thursday afternoon, over 100 contractual employees staged a protest outside the commission building, holding banners inscribed with slogans such as “HEC in danger” and “stop politics in educational institutions”.

Zia Batool, Director General Quality Assurance, said, “This is a black day in the history of the HEC and we will do everything to restore Naqvi, who has done a lot for this institution.”

Learning Innovation Division DG Noor Amna Malik said that the decision aims to curb HEC’s autonomy.

“If 97,000 employees in different government organisations could be regularised without objection, what is this farce about these few appointments,” said Anwar curtly.

The permanent employees, however, appeared relieved. An official said, “We are not against [regularisation], but that should be on merit and not against the rules and regulations.”

Another official interjected that some directors and director generals were also unhappy with the “pick and choose” approach in the appointments.

The Islamabad High Court had stayed regularisations in HEC in April 2012, after three permanent HEC employees filed a petition. HEC Chairman Leghari refused to comment on the situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2012.