Federal education board: Employees want boss out

Refuse to perform duties till new appointment.


Our Correspondent March 14, 2014
Refuse to perform duties till new appointment. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


Over 200 employees of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) went on strike to demand the chairperson’s removal, whose tenure has been marked by several controversies and court cases. 


The protest, which was called just ahead of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination for grades nine and 10 (March 18), is likely to disrupt the distribution of question papers and other documents to schools across the country. Around 10am, FBISE’s officers and lower staff started assembling near the main gate inside the main building and staged a sit-in. Protesters accused FBISE Chairperson Shaheen Khan of forcing staffers to carry out illegal orders.

“It is too much; we are sick of this chairperson. She has been here for the last five years and everything is in disarray,” remarked Examinations Controller  Aslam Gul. All the directors, deputy directors and lower staff boycotted their duties and remained outside their offices. Examinations Deputy Controller Mirza Ali claimed that the chairperson had lost her credibility as she and her clique were doing nothing to move things in the right direction.

Khan served as HEC Sports director-general immediately after the commission’s inception and was appointed as FBISE chairperson in 2009. Her four-year tenure officially ended in September 2013, during which issues about the legitimacy of her degree as well as her husband’s involvement in FBISE’s affairs surfaced.

Another officer among the protesters, Sajid Abbasi, alleged that money was being siphoned off in connivance with an assistant secretary from the collection of admission fee for SSC and Higher Secondary School Certificate.

Ministry of Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education sent three names to the prime minister after conducting interviews two and a half months ago. According to an officer in the education ministry, they spoke several times with the PM’s secretary, but there has been no response. He stated that the minister requested the PM to meet him to discuss pending summaries related to several education departments but it looked like he would have to wait.



The ministry is also conducting an inquiry over allegations submitted against the chairperson some days back by controller examinations. “We are conducting an inquiry against Khan and will investigate all the allegations levelled against her,” said State Minister for Education Balighur Rehman. But let it be clear that demands are not met through protests, he added. “If they think the chairperson should go, I suggest they wait. A new appointment is just a matter of time,” the minister reiterated.

The staffers vowed that they would continue their strike until the chairperson was removed. When told that the PM would soon appoint a new chief, Academics Director Tariq Chaudhry replied that if the government were serious they would have appointed a new chairperson right after Khan’s tenure ended in  September last year.

Later in the day, the staff dispersed peacefully, while Khan met the minister and senior officers to inform them about an alleged campaign to defame her. She told The Express Tribune that all the allegations were baseless and she did not do anything wrong. “It is their habit as every year they stage such protests ahead of the examinations to disrupt them,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2014.

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