ISLAMABAD: For the last over a week, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), an umbrella organisation of 422 educational institutions in the capital, has been without a permanent head to run its affairs.

The last temporary director general (DG), Hasnat Qureshi, relinquished the charge on Oct 10.

Mr Qureshi, chairman of the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Piera), held the acting charge of the FDE for one-and-a-half years.

Since Dec 2016, no permanent director general of FDE could be hired and last acting head relinquished charge on Oct 10

Sources in the FDE said in the absence of the DG, official matters were facing delays. They said 21 buses, which the FDE had received under the Prime Minister’s Education Reforms Programme, remained parked for the last few days as they could not be delivered to schools and college in the absence of the DG.

Officials in the directorate said the taking over of schools renovated under the reforms programme was also facing a delay.

The revised PC-I of a number of development projects also remained pending as without approval of the DG the FDE could not move them to the ministry. As the office of the DG is locked for over a week, there are also hindrances in other routine official businesses.

However, the sources said a file was in process for the appointment of the regular DG and the matter was expected to be resolved in a few days.

They said as per rules the DG was hired from the pool of senior-most degree college principals (BPS-19) or the senior-most director of the FDE.

The post of the DG fell vacant in Dec 2016 after the retirement of Dr Shahnaz Riaz. Since then no effort has been made to appoint a regular head. In the absence of the regular DG, a number of bureaucrats enjoyed the additional charge of the FDE. The sources said the newly-created post of the executive director (ED) of the FDE was also vacant. In March 2016, the federal government created the post for looking after the affairs of the FDE.

The then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had approved the summary for appointing either a civil servant or an educational professional from the open market to improve the functioning of the directorate. But after creation of the post, no step was taken to make the appointment.

Until recently, the FDE was a subsidiary of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) but after the latter’s abolishment it has been placed under the administrative control of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.

Now, the education ministry will send three names to the prime minister for picking one of them to fill the post of DG.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2018