LAHORE: The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) has finalised nominees for seven boards of intermediate and secondary education (BISEs) chairmen slots lying vacant for over a year.

HED Secretary Khalid Saleem said on Thursday final candidates were called by the chief secretary to negotiate salary because the government had earlier planned to offer MP-II scale to the chairmen. He said on the direction of the Supreme Court, they were just giving an additional basic pay of grade 20 to the chairmen.

He said the department was finalising the summary and the notification would be issued after getting approval from the chief minister office.

However, a senior official, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn caretaker chief minister Hassan Askri had already refused to appoint vice chancellors of universities as search committees had finalised some candidates. He said the caretaker chief minister had conveyed the HED that the new government would appoint vice chancellors of the universities.

He said the caretaker chief minister could also stop the process of appointment of BISE chairmen till formation of the next government.

The Punjab government advertised the posts of chairmen of BISEs of Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sahiwal and Sargodha setting May 8 deadline for receiving the applications. The department received more than 100 applications and of them, shortlisted some 43 candidates. Later, a search committee conducted their two days interviews on July 16 and 17.

The previous government completed the appointment process and also shortlisted candidates, however, deferred the appointments. The government gave the respective commissioners additional charge of seven education boards’ chairmen instead as a stopgap arrangement.

Sources claimed the committee had finalised seven candidates for the posts.

He said that the committee had recommended Sibghatullah for Faisalabad BISE, Saifullah Saif Sargodha, Muhammad Mushtaq Gujranwala, Dr Shehnaz Tanveer Kiyani Rawalpindi, Kishwar J Shad Multan, Shamim Siyal Sahiwal and Aizaz Joiya for Bahawalpur.

Several discrepancies were found in the matriculation examination conducted under the supervision of divisional commissioners, including paper leak in the Rawalpindi board and missing answer-sheets in Gujranwala. The Sahiwal board question papers were also allegedly available on WhatsApp before the examination.

The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association also protested against the government for not appointing the regular chairmen of the boards.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2018