ISLAMABAD: On the direction of the Establishment Division, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has formulated a policy under which contracts of employees will not be extended.

An officer in the HEC told Dawn on Friday that three management position (MP) scale and BPS-20 officers had lost their jobs because of the decision while three others would go home by June.

Requesting anonymity, the officer said on Friday a notification issued by the HEC stated that the contract of MP scale officer Anees Sadozai, who was the director general services, was not extended.

“Mr Sadozai’s contract will expire on March 8 and he has been instructed to get no-objection certificates from different departments of the HEC for the issuance of a final clearance,” he said.

Adviser finance Mujtaba Kayani, a permanent employee, is going to retire on March 14.

He has also been informed that he cannot get extension in his service because of the new instructions, he said.

Director general quality assurance Zia Batool’s contract expired on January 29.

When her contract was not extended, she approached the Islamabad High Court and obtained a stay order, he said.

Another officer of the HEC requesting anonymity said Ms Batool got as many as three extensions (six years).

But according to the new policy, the MP scale officers cannot get extension even after completion of the first two years service.

The contract of the director general teacher training, Noor Amina Malik, will expire in May, adviser monitoring and evaluation Jalil Ahmed will retire in May and the director general information technology, Anwar Amjad, will retire in June. It has been decided that the contract of none of the employees will be extended, he said.

Another officer, who was in favour of continuing with officers appointed by the former HEC managements, added that these officers had good relations with the former management so they were being replaced.

“The former chairman had got an FIR registered against six employees for protesting against the management. But now the FIR has been quashed because the new management wants the employees to continue working,” he said.

However, an employee who was nominated in the FIR said the case had been closed because during investigation by the police it was proved that the allegations against the employees were baseless.

When contacted, HEC spokesperson Ayesha Ikram said the commission was following the instructions of the federal government about the MP scale and contractual employees. “Notifications have been issued because employees have to get clearance certificates from different departments for the finalisation of their cases for payment,” she said.

In reply to a question, Ms Ikram said the contract of Ms Batool expired on January 29 and she obtained a stay order on January 30.

“The management has not stopped Ms Batool from coming to the office and is waiting for the court decision. However, she cannot do any office work till the decision of the court,” she said.

There are very competent regular employees who can replace MP scale officers, she said.