Rifts among Peira employees

The performance of the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) is being affected by rifts among employees.

Peira is considered an important regulatory body as the capital city has over 1,000 registered and unregistered schools.

During the last three weeks, the authority has been witnessing a hostile environment due to strikes by a group of employees who are also making allegations of corruption against the top managment.

Employees of the authority on Dec 14 staged a protest against the administration due to the harsh attitude of Member Academic Imtiaz Qureshi and for the release of their salaries for November.

Peira Secretary Mohammad Javed Iqbal was suspended by Peira Chairman Hasnat Qureshi after he was accused of supporting the protestors.

Later, Mr Iqbal wrote a letter to the secretary Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), saying he was suspended for asking Peira Member Academic Imtiaz Ali Qureshi for details of the free text books given to students of registered schools.

“After the provision of these details, Imtiaz Qureshi forced the undersigned to discard the information and directed me to prepare fake details, i.e. entire amount was expended for purchase of books,” he said in the letter,

On the other hand, a fact finding report, prepared by a committee headed by the Peira chairman, says that Mr Iqbal started the employees’ protests in collusion with president of unregistered Private School Network Dr Afzal Babar, who portrays himself as an MBBS doctor.

“The baseless and fabricated applications submitted by employees [to the secretary CADD] was prepared by [the now suspended] secretary under the supervision and advise of Afzal Babar,” the report says.

It goes on to say that Rs51.59 million was released during the financial years 2008-09 and 2012-13 for the purchase of books and contingent operations. Of this, Rs43 million was spent on buying books and Rs8 million on contingent operation expenses.

The report says an audit of the purchase of books was carried out in July-August 2013 by the office of the auditor general and that no discrepancies were found.

A special audit was conducted in 2015 on the instructions of CADD and no discrepancies were found.

“We have submitted our report to the CADD secretary. No one will be allowed to blackmail Peira. Employees were protesting for the release of their salaries which have been released so there is no justification for the protests now,” said the Peira chairman.

He added that just a few employees are on strike and that the authority has been conducting official work without any hindrance.

When asked, Private School Network Chairman Afzal Babar said he has nothing to do with the strike.

“The authority has been dragging my name in the inquiry report in order to save the corrupt member academic,” he said.

Teacher training workshop at Numl

The department of English at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl) in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) conducted a three-day workshop for faculty development.

HEC Director General Fida Hussein was the chief guest at the closing session and was attended by Numl Director General Brig Mohammad Ibrahim, Numl Rector Aminullah Khan, Dean Languages Dr Safeer Awan and Dean Social Sciences Dr Sufiana Khatoon.

According to a Numl spokesperson, these workshops aim to provide faculty members with necessary skills for participating positively in academic activities in universities.

He said 30 teachers from higher education institutions in Islamabad and Rawalpindi participated in the event.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2018