HARIPUR: With the government’s plan to devolve powers of the higher education department to the divisional level hitting a snag, the matters to be handled by the regional directorates from transfers to appointments to postings to leaves of employees of colleges are facing long delays in disposal.

Under the plan, which the government came up with last year after examining the issues facing the administrations of over 470 colleges in the province, regional directorates of higher education were to be established in Hazara, Malakand, Swat and south Bannu.

The chief minister had announced the upgradation of the Peshawar-based directorate of higher education as the Directorate-General of Higher Education.

A regional directorate was to be established in the old staff hostel of the Government Postgraduate College No 1, Abbottabad, to handle the administrative and financial affairs of over 40 colleges in eight districts of Hazara division.

However, that hasn’t happened yet despite the approval of the required budget and the post of a BPS-20 regional director. Also, the commissioning of over a dozen colleges across Hazara division has been delayed.

The relevant official sources based here blamed delay in the functioning of the regional directorate on the Peshawar-based head office, which managed those college affairs in districts both directly and through the joint management committees.

They feared that the wait for regional directorates to become functional would get longer due to the change of the federal government and political instability in the country.

When approached, Government Postgraduate College for Boys, Haripur, principal and Joint Management Committee chairman Prof Sajjad Khan confirmed the issue but expressed the hope that the regional directorate would begin function in the next fiscal for smooth management of college affairs.

Drawing and disbursement officer at the regional directorate Prof Abdul Wahab told Dawn that the appointment of 30-35 employees and the purchase of computers, office furniture, vehicles for office were in the pipeline.

“Since putting up new building is not feasible right now, the old staff hostel of the Government Postgraduate College for Boys Abbottabad is being converted into the RDHED offices,” he said.

He said the directorate’s annual budget would be around Rs200-250 million. Prof Wahab said no official work related to colleges was affected by delay in the establishment of the directorate’s offices.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2022