May 31, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 30: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam has directed the education ministry to ensure the appointment of the head of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) in line with the rules of SRO-225.

The statutory notification seeks the appointment of the FDE head on seniority basis and from the parent department.

It was more than four years ago that the Federal Government College Teachers Association had challenged the extension of Brig (retired) Maqsoodul Hassan as the FDE director general on the grounds that he had been appointed in violation of the SRO-225 as he did not belong to the parent organisation.

Mr Hassan left the FDE on October 23 last year after heading it for over seven years. Later, the post was filled with the appointment of a serving brigadier, Javed Iqbal, who has now been called back on the orders of Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to withdraw serving army personnel from civilian posts.

In its order, the IHC has directed that SRO-225, which was issued on March 7, 1990, by the Ministry of Education, should be followed in the appointment of the head of FDE, besides any other rules issued later on.

Federal Government College Teachers Association, Islamabad, president Prof Qasim Masood had filed a writ petition against the secretaries Establishment Division and Ministry of Education and chairman Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), contending that they should not allow the appointment of an outsider as the FDE head.

In his petition, Prof Masood had stated that the FDE needed to be saved as an institution, but if the directorate failed to achieve its goal of promoting the cause of education, then it would be better to eliminate it altogether.

REGULARISATION: The IHC here on Friday directed the Ministry of Education to regularise the services of five contract teachers working in different federal educational institutes, APP reported. The single-member bench of Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam issued the directives on two identical writ petitions of Syed Kamran Mehdi and Tehmina Shaheen.

Ali Murad Baloch appeared as counsel for the petitioners.

ARREARS DISPUTE: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Al-Sadiq Construction Company to nominate an expert with consensus to settle the row over land measurement and to pave the way for payment of outstanding amount to the civic agency.

The single bench of Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam issued the directions before adjourning the case hearing till June 3.

In the last hearing, the same bench had terminated the contract of a former CDA engineer on the request of the construction firm, which showed reservation about his nomination to measure the land.

Last month, the IHC chief justice had vacated a stay on recovery of arrears and allowed the CDA to recover the outstanding amount with the help of a land measurement expert.

Javed Iqbal, an expert architect, was tasked with measuring the land upon which the building was raised. Barrister Masroor Shah, counsel for the CDA, had said that a plot in Sector F-11 was sold for the construction of Abu Dhabi Tower to Al Sadiq Construction Company for Rs480 million.