ISLAMABAD: The search committee of the education ministry meets on Wednesday (today) to start the process of appointing Professional (VCs) of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

QAU Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Ahsraf, AIOU Vice Chancellor Dr Shahid Siddiqui and IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai are going to retire next month after completing their four-year term.

The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training had advertised the three posts in March and gave almost one month deadline to candidates to submit their applications.

Though a large number of educationists submitted their applications, the ministry made no serious effort to finalise the recruitment process.

Sources said that newly appointed Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood would chair the meeting of the search committee while Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman, education ministry secretary and other committee members will attend the meeting.

“The new education minister, who has been taking steps to bring about improvement in education sector, should finalise the process as soon as possible,” said an HEC official.

Officials of education ministry attributed the delay to change of governments.

They said that since previous government had completed its tenure in May, the ministry did not want to complete the process during interim government tenure.

“Now, new government is in place and education ministry has been working dedicatedly so I don’t think there will be any delay,” said an official of the education ministry.

Last time too, the process of appointments of VCs of the three universities faced delay as advertisement was made in November 2013 but appointments were made in October 2014, seven months after the retirement of previous heads of the universities.

When contacted, Joint Education Adviser of the Education Ministry Rafiq Tahir confirmed to Dawn that search committee would meet on Wednesday.

He said the process would complete well before the expiry of tenure of existing heads of the three universities in questions.

Recently, the federal government after abolishing Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) decided to place the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which runs 423 schools and colleges of Islamabad, under the administrative control of the education ministry.

The FDE officials requested the education minister to take steps for appointments of a regular head of FDE, as directorate is being run on adhoc basis since the retirement of DG Dr Shahnaz A. Raiz in December 2016.

“Timely and regular appointments always help government to improve governance, the culture of ad hocism should be ended at least in educational institutions,” an official of the FDE said on condition of anonymity.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018