ISLAMABAD: The Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) is going to have its first ever head who is to be appointed after a competitive process.

After conducting interviews of nine shortlisted candidates following an advertisement, the education ministry has recommended three names for the post of the chairman Peira.

Sources said a summary carrying the three names had been sent to Prime Minister Imran Khan for picking one of them as the Peira chairman for three years.

“Today we sent the summary to Prime Minister Office for final selection,” said an official of the education ministry.

He said the summary carried the names of Punjab Higher Education Director General Zia Batool and two retired army officers.

Established to regulate private schools, the authority will get a permanent chairman through competitive process

“The prime minister has the discretion to pick one of the three names,” he said, adding hopefully in the next few days the name would be finalised. Currently, the authority is being run on an ad hoc basis.

Peira, which is supposed to regulate private educational institutions of the capital, has been without a permanent head for many years.

Peira was formed in 2006 as a registration authority and initially the chairman Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) was given the additional charge of the chairman.

In 2009, the then PPP government appointed its party leader Atif Kayani as the head of the authority who served till 2013.

The Peira Act 2013 gave more powers to the authority, including the power to determine school fees.

After resignation of Mr Kayani, the post remained vacant for two years. In 2015, the Capital Administration and Development Division, the then parent ministry of Peira, finalised rules under which a professional from the private sector would be appointed chairman of Peira after a competitive process.

Sources said in 2016 CADD had advertised the post but could not get a “suitable” candidate. As a result, the government appointed a grade 20 officer, Musadiq Ahmed Khan, as the chairman who served till Feb 2017.

He was replaced by Hasnat Qureshi, another Grade 20 officer of the audit and accounts group, who served till Oct 2018. Since then the office is being run on ad hoc arrangements.

The sources said in response to the recent advertisement, 36 candidates applied for the post out of whom nine were shortlisted and then three names finalised.

Peira is supposed to regulate over 2,000 schools in the capital and keep a regulatory check on them. However, so far, the performance of the authority has been unsatisfactory.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2019